Night of The Dragonsby Citrus ShineChaptersChapter One: The Warm WelcomeChapter Two: Hatching a PlanChapter Three: Scaling the Great UnknownPrologue: Cinders of a Frozen VillageChapter One: The Warm Welcome“Twilight? Could you remind me again why we’re speeding off to Canterlot?” “Huh?” “I mean, I’m fine with any excuse to go to Canterlot especially during the springtime, but you weren’t very clear exactly why we were going. You just sort of mumbled something about the Princess.” Twilight looked up from her book at Rarity, who was now sitting beside her. The others were still sitting a few rows behind them laughing at something that Spike had said. “Look Rarity, to be honest I’m not really sure why we’re going either. I just got a letter yesterday from the Princess asking if we could be there today.” “Do you think that anything’s wrong?” “Probably not, she said it wasn’t too serious but there’s somepony that she’d really like me to meet.” “So, if it’s just you meeting somepony, then why are all of us coming?” “I don’t know, she just wrote that everypony should all come along too. Did you not want to come Rarity?” “Oh no no no Twilight! I just was curious about the occasion. Also I wanted to know which hat to wear once we arrive at the train station; you know how important it is to make the proper entrance based on the situation.” Rarity pulled out two marvelous hats that she had designed herself, and Twilight laughed. “Well, since we are meeting some very important pony, I’d go with the blue one.” “The blue one...” “I mean, uh, the silver one?” “Ah, that’s just what I was thinking! Thanks for your help Twilight dear.” With that, Rarity put on the silver hat, packed the blue one away, then trotted to the back of the train to join the others. As she watched her friend leave, Twilight’s smile faded into a confused scowl. It wasn’t like the Princess to be so vague; who could this pony be that her and her friends were supposed meet? Or was it even a pony at all? She dug her head back into her book, the latest issue of the Important Ponies Journal. There were scientists, celebrities, even her and her friends, but Twilight couldn’t figure out which one, if any of them, they were going to meet. In a wave of frustration she slammed her head into the book. After an hour, the seven friends finally reached Canterlot station. The streets were bustling with all types of ponies, and her friends were slowly making their way out of the train, taking in the sights. “Ooh!” Pinkie Pie squealed, “The ice cream cafe has double-decker popsicles!” “Forget the popsicles Pinkie” Rainbow Dash interrupted, eyes growing wide at a poster hanging by the train station door, “The Wonderbolts are having a show today at Canterlot Coliseum! It says that Spitfire’s going to do her famous Fireball Fly-by!” “Oh but would you just look at the Main Square, the Canterlot Spring fashions are simply to die for! Oh that classical petticoat with fitted bodice is simply chic!” Rarity swooned, “And coupled with that hat..” “Speaking of Springtime, the city is so pretty this time of year; with the Redbud trees in bloom, and all the birdies coming back” Fluttershy added, “Just seeing it all makes me want to sing!” “Oh Tatarus!” Twilight cursed, looking at the Canterlot clock tower, “I’m sorry everypony, no time to enjoy the scenery. We’re already late to the meeting with the Princess! Maybe if we hurry Celestia won’t be too angry, c’mon!” With that, the group quickly galloped up the hill to the Canterlot Castle. “Twilight, I’m so glad you and your friends could make it” Princess Celestia welcomed warmly as the seven stumbled into the great hall. “Thank... you... Princess,” Twilight panted, “Sorry... we’re... so.. late...” “Never fret Twilight Sparkle, didn’t I tell you that this wasn’t urgent?” the Princess asked. Twilight shook her head, while her other friends glared at her. Celestia only laughed. “I’ll let you all catch your breath while I get our other guest, she’s just waiting in the throne room.” Twilight bowed, still panting, as the Celestia left for the other room. After the others caught their breath, Rainbow Dash spoke up. “So, who exactly are we meeting again? Twilight, you hardly said anything before we left!” “I hardly knew anything before we left. I just got a vague letter from the Princess asking if all of us could come to the Castle as soon as we could.” “I wonder what this mystery guest could want with all of us” Spike wondered aloud. “Do y’all think the kingdom’s ok?” Applejack asked, “Should we panic?” Fluttershy shuttered, “No, no now’s no time to panic. Celestia would have said if something was wrong. She even said that it wasn’t too important if we couldn’t make it today.” Twilight said, still pondering the possibilities. “I wonder if we’re meeting royalty. Maybe they're an eligible young stallion” Rarity sighed dreamily. “Ooo! Or what if we’re throwing a super duper fun party again!” Pinkie Pie offered, “Maybe one of the guards is having a birthday and the princess wanted us to wish him a happy birthday! Or what if-” Suddenly, they heard a loud creaking from the massive hallway doors slowly opening. "You can come in now girls" Princess Celestia beckoned. The seven friends entered slowly, walking towards the Princess who stood in front of the two thrones with one wing up, shrouding somepony behind it. “May I present the brilliant and talented Night Ember, one of my other top students” Celestia announced, letting down her wing. Behind it was a well groomed unicorn that was about the others’ age. She had a dark navy coat, a ghostly-light teal mane, and fiery orange eyes. “Twilight Sparkle?!” the mare asked excitedly, running towards Twilight. Twilight was taken aback-- she had no clue who this other pony was. Once this strange new pony was in front of her, Night Ember slowed and bent to curtsy looking directly into Twilight’s eyes with a soft smirk. “Oh Twilight, I’ve heard so much about you and your friends. I can’t believe you’ve saved all of Equestria so many times, it’s unbelievable! First Nightmare Moon, then Discord, I just can’t even take it all in right now!” “Well, um, I’m honored! But I’m so sorry, I can’t say I’ve heard the Princess mention you before...” “Part of that is my fault. Even though Night Ember is amazingly talented in the field of magic, she’s hidden up in the Smoky Mountains that I can sometimes forget about her out there,” Princess Celestia joked as she walked up to the group, “She has been asking for years now about all the adventures you and your friends have had. I’ve offered to let you two meet for years but she’s always been a bit too shy. When I received a letter from her that she wished to meet you and your friends, I thought it was about time that you all got together”. Night Ember bowed and shook hooves with Twilight and each of her friends one by one, ending with a hoof shake and a wink with a confused Spike. “I’m so glad that we can finally meet! How far along are you with your studies Night Ember?” Twilight politely asked. “Well, of course I’m not as good as you, oh great Twilight Sparkle, I can only do a couple of things-” “Oh don’t be so modest Night! She might not study such a wide array of skills as you Twilight, but she’s made amazing discoveries in both magic and information concerning an array of mythical creatures.” “Specifically, dragons” Night Ember said proudly as she showed off her cutie mark: it was a wild orange flame in the shape of a dragon's head. “Woah! That is too cool!” Rainbow Dash gushed. “Dragons? You mean like me?” Spike asked. Night Ember nodded happily. “Exactly like you Spike. I’ve been fascinated with them ever since I opened my egg on the test day.” “Wait, you opened your egg too?” Twilight asked. Twilight had never known another student who had opened a dragon egg; the original purpose of the dragon egg was to see how well that unicorn could react under pressure, and to her knowledge Twilight had been the only pony who had actually succeeded in hatching it. “So, does that mean that you have a dragon too?” Spike asked excitedly, and Night Ember nodded. “Of course! I actually wanted to wait to show you him, but, well, since you asked--Wasp! Wasp could you please come in here to meet our new friends?” Night Ember called out. After a short pause, a pony-sized black dragon with tall, pointed yellow scales appeared in the doorway; Twilight could see Fluttershy backing up behind Applejack as he crept closer. His eyes were squashed in a suspicious glare as he skulked into the room “Everypony, meet my good friend and partner: Wasp” Night introduced. The dragon nodded in welcome, but stayed by Night Ember’s side. “Well, uh, he sure is a big guy isn’t he?” Twilight spit out awkwardly, attempting to break the silence. “Yes, his species is known to grow quite quickly, but I’m afraid that he’s not going to get too much larger than a couple of hundred hooves high.” “A couple hundred hooves? That doesn’t sound too little to me” Rarity accidentally blurted out. “Oh, but you really don’t have to worry about him. He’s a dragon of few words but he has a real golden heart once you get to know him.” “Well,” Fluttershy nervously started, “It’s very nice to meet you Wasp.” She slowly approached the dragon and put out a hoof in welcome. Wasp seemed surprised, but took her hoof and warmly shook it. "I'm so happy that you all are becoming such good friends" Princess Celestia smiled, "I've prepared a small lunch in the dining room if you all have the time." "That sounds lovely Princess, thank you for your hospitality" Rarity thanked as she curtsied. The rest of the friends began following Celestia out the door when Night called out nervously. "Wait! Celestia! I mean, Princess. Princess Celestia. M’am. Do we have to go to the dining hall? Couldn't we, just stay here?" The rest of the group confusedly looked back at the pony and her dragon. "Do you have to get back home Night Ember?" the princess asked. "Um, no, it's just that-" Night Ember blathered, "Celestia, could I ask an odd request? Do you think we could eat in here? In the throne room? It's just I love admiring the, oh you know, the stained glass, and the- drapes?" The ponies blinked back at Night. "Well, of course we could Night Ember, why not? I see you so little that a little deviation from the normal would be fun. Do you girls mind?" the Princess asked the other ponies who all shook their heads happily in agreement; all except for Rarity, who was only slightly cross that she was snuffed out of the chance for a royal lunch. Within minutes, a table was brought into the throne room, the lunch was served, and the ten sat down. "Hey Rainbow? Anything that you, uh, are findin' a bit odd about this Night Ember gal?" Applejack whispered to Rainbow Dash once the group began eating. "No, what are you talking about?" "I dunno, there's just something about that pony that just rubs me the wrong way. I trust her about as far as I could throw her." "What? Why? She's awesome! She hangs out with dragons all day in the Smokey Mountains, what could be cooler than that? Also I bet you could throw her pretty far, just sayin'." "Very funny Rainbow, but- well shoot I don’t know. Haven't you noticed anything weird about her? It's like she's hiding somethin', and I don't like it." "Jeez AJ, since when were you so suspicious?" "I'm serious! She looks just like Applebloom before I found out she was hiding knives that her and her friends were gonna juggle to try an' get their Cutie Marks. Not to mention that dragon of her’s looks about as cheerful as a bruised bear" "You're just paranoid, I’m sure he’s just sick of hanging out with ponies. Also, what would Night Ember be hiding? Maybe she's just-- really really happy." "Also listen how she talks to everypony else, especially Twi and the princess. She's all sarcastic, like she thinks she's better than everypony else here." "She talks with a poisonous air" Rarity whispered in. "What? So you think she's bad news too?" Rainbow Dash asked. "Hmm? Oh no no no, Night Ember seems delightful, but I do agree she talks as though she's up to something; it must come with hanging out with dreadful serpents all day. Anyways nobody with such good style could be bad news, I absolutely adore her mane." "What are you guys talking about?" Fluttershy sheepishly whispered. "Applejack thinks Night Ember is evil" Rainbow Dash explained. "What?! No!" Applejack yelled under her breath, "Ah'm sure she's a fine pony-- just a might suspicious is all" "Why do you think she's suspicious? She seems like a lovely unicorn" Fluttershy defended. "She breathes poison air or something-" Rainbow Dash mumbled, getting bored of the conversation and going back to her lunch. "What?" Fluttershy asked, horrified as Applejack simply slammed her hoof against her face in exasperation at Rainbow's failure to communicate. "No dear, the air is fine I was just saying-" Rarity began. "Uh, guys?" Spike awkwardly whispered, trying to get the girls’ attention. “I had just said ‘poisonous air’, not air like breathing. I swear you’re all worse than Sweetie Belle-” Rarity grumbled. “Guys?” Spike whispered again, elbowing Applejack. "Hey everypony, can I whisper with you guys too?" Pinkie Pie asked in a hush excitement. "Guys-- Twilight was hoping that you'd share your thoughts with the rest of the table" Spike hinted as he motioned to the head of the table, where Wasp, Night Ember, Celestia all were silently staring at them while Twilight was glaring disappointedly. The four chatting ponies scooted back apart and went back to their meal. “So, Night Ember,” Twilight began, hoping to distract from that little incident, “I’d love to hear all about your research. I’ve had a lot of questions about Spike, and no book in my library seems to have any answers. How did you even get started in this kind of study?” “Well, I had the same questions about dragons that you probably do, however I had grown so close to Wasp that I just couldn’t wait to find out more. I had asked Princess Celestia if I could go to the Smoky Mountains to research them further alongside wild dragons. I’ve actually been able to get very close with many dragons of all types and ages, and I’ve spent so much time with them the locals have actually come to call me ‘Night of the dragons’. It’s a cute name actually.” "Ah" Pinkie Pie sighed with understanding, "Sometimes when I spend too long with the cream-filled sponge cakes Mr. Cake starts referring to me as ‘Pinkie if the Twinkies'” At this remark Twilight mirrored Applejack's previous face-hoof. Night Ember leaned behind the other ponies to talk to Spike. "Don't worry" she assured him, "It'll all be over soon." When Night went back to her lunch Spike only sat looking at her confusedly. “Well ladies” Princess Celestia began as the servent ponies were beginning to take away their plates, “I’m so pleased that we’ve all been able to meet each other after so long, there is truly nothing more special than meeting new friends. If I may, I like to propose-” Suddenly, a monstrous tremble hit the castle. The group tensed as the force moved through the building with an unnatural groan. “Now what in the name of buckin’ broncos is that?” Applejack hollered a few seconds after the mysterious tremor had passed. Everypony looked at each other, hoping somepony else had the answer, but even the Princess seemed to be taken off guard. The servent ponies quickly trotted out of the throne room, and Twilight saw a dubious grin pass over Night Embers face. Just then, one of Celestia’s royal guards frantically ran into the hall. “Princess, a hoarde has just been spotted coming straight for the castle! We don’t have much time!” The guard urged through his panting. “A hoarde of what?” Celestia asked nervously. Without warning, a monstrous clawed hand broke through the wall, snatching the Princess. The room erupted in shrieks of terror and panic as nopony knew what to do. Dragons of all sizes burst into the hall, breaking through walls and stained glass windows, each trying to catch Twilight and her friends. Night Ember’s horn lit up, then fired a bright beam directly at Celestia. The beam hit the Princess and the intense magic enveloped her, swirling and changing around her body. Most of Twilight's friends were quickly caught, aside from Spike and Rainbow Dash, but Night Ember stood calmly in the center of the room, a malicious and cheesy smile spreading across her face. “What have you done to the Princess you sick, twisted traitor!” Rainbow Dash yelled as she dodged another dragon’s attack. She then turned and flew straight towards Night Ember, ready to attack; but the unicorn was ready too. Right before Rainbow Dash hit, Night Ember was engulfed in white flames, burning the pegasus but leaving Night Ember unscathed and laughing maniacally. A black dragon picked up Rainbow Dash's limp body and secured her neck in a choke hold. Still aflame, Night Ember shot another beam at Twilight and Rarity as the last of the free ponies were captured and Spike was being held by Wasp. “What have you done?!” Twilight sobbed, feeling a sharp pain in her horn, “Why are you doing this? What is going on?” “Justice.” Night Ember barked brazenly, “Though nothing in comparison of what you and your kind have done to mine.” The flame around her suddenly vanished, and after another spell was cast Night Ember grew two navy dragon wings. She stood in triumph, obviously proud with her alicorn form. "Your kind?” Applejack asked, “Well what kind are ya then? Dragon? No good rebel?” “Though perhaps not by birth, I’d believe I am a dragon trapped in a feeble pony body. Our mighty kind has been oppressed and underestimated for far too long. Somepony has to right these atrocities,” Night Ember announced garishly as she slowly paced across the hall, her now reptilian tongue flipping in and out, “Ponykind disgusts me in the way they use these noble, strong and smart creatures, even though they possess the power and the knowledge to take over all of Equestria. All they needed was a little initiative and the leadership to get it accomplished." “What do you mean, ‘oppressed’? Ponies have hardly interacted at all with dragons, and even if we have it’s been running away!” Twilight yelled angrily, “Dragons aren’t threatened or-” “Oh be silent you clod. Not only do ponies mistreat us, but they’re completely ignorant that they’re doing so!” Night Ember spat, “Just to start, Celestia’s school used their children as tests for young unicorns that have no clue what they’re doing in that idiotic ‘dragon-egg test’. Do you know how many mother dragons have lost their young because of that?” There was a long pause. “Well that’s awful, but-” Pinkie Pie started “But that’s just the beginning!” Night Ember growled, “Every time within the last two thousand years that a Dragon has tried to nest in Equestria, they’ve been either killed or run off within the first week of their stay. You clowns were even apart of this! When a peaceful dragon tried to nest in an uninhabited mountain just to sleep, you all guilted him right out of there the same day, forcing him to abandoned his nest and all his jewels inside. Dragons have a right to nest wherever they please, especially if they intend to be peaceful. The real problems is you ponies just hate dragons without even giving them a chance!” Night Ember stomped her hoof defiently. “But we love dragons!” Fluttershy offered, “Sure, I might be scared of them most of the time, but I really do love them. Our good friend Spike is a dragon and we all just love him to death!” “Ha! Now there is a good laugh. Of all the dragons ponies have abused, you and your friends towards Spike have been the nastiest example.” “What?!” Twilight blurted out, “But we love him with all our hearts! Tell her Spike!” “Yes.” Night Ember started sarcastically, her reptilian tongue flicking, “Tell me Spike about how wonderful and loving your friends have been to you. Like how Twilight’s never stopped bossing you around since day one?” “Wait a minute!” Spike began, “That’s-” “Or how about the times that she’s ‘accidentally’ abused you in her waves of panic and stress? Knocking you with books or accidentally slamming you with the door?” “Well, uh, that’s-” “Or how about the time they forced you to revert back into a baby dragon after you’d grown full size?” “But, uh, that’s because-” “Or when you had finally decided to be free and live with your own kind: they had only let you go with the intent of stealing you back for their own selfish-selfishness, then botched your chance of ever bonding with the other dragons by interrupting you, then stealing you away?” “Well, well I, uh, um...” Spike floundered to quickly come up with an answer. “Be perfectly honest with me Spike. Do you ever miss those other dragons? Have you ever wanted to be a part of their group again, even for a moment?” Night Ember demanded, standing with her face right next to Spike’s. “Sometimes...” Spike admitted. “The only reason that Spike hasn’t run away to be happy with his own kind is because of your so-called love.” Night Ember guilted spitefully, turning towards the others. “No!” Spike stated. “Hmm?” Night Ember hummed curiously, but still confident. “No! The reason that I stay with them and don’t run away is because I love them too!” he announced to Night Ember valiantly. Night Ember stuttered, obviously not expecting this, then narrowed her eyes lowered herself down until she was at eye level with Spike. “You only think it’s love because you haven’t had the chance to know anything else.” Night Ember huffed then flew up to a group of waiting dragons to bark out orders. They nodded faithfully then flew down the hallway, with a few stopping to smash out the remaining windows. Twilight and her friends could yelling from the royal guards, then the clank of the gigantic metal door leading into the forgotten dungeons. “So what have you done to me and to Twilight?” Rarity demanded “And what have you done to the Princess?” Rainbow Dash coughed, now conscious and fighting against the dragons holding her. “Oh, you have no idea of the things that I'm going to do. You don't even understand the level of magic that I'm capable of! Starting with you two, I have temporarily infected your horns making it impossible to practice any magic while I’m here; we wouldn’t want any funny business before the grand finale, hmm?” Night Ember then let out a dramatic laugh. "Sure seems like y'all just don't want anypony interruptin' your hammy ramblings..." Applejack mumbled. “So what are you going to do?” Pinkie Pie questioned, “It had better not have anything to do with bananas or gosh darnit missy you’ll be sorry!” Night Ember simply rolled her eyes at the group. “Oh you six overblown 'heroes' have no clue of what I have ahead, it’s absolutely brilliant! Me and my hoard have easily overtaken Canterlot, and will have no problem controlling the rest of Equestria”, Night Ember cackled, “Your Princess is under my control, and since I’ve diffused you and your friends there’s nothing that could possibly stop me now!” “It’s no use Night Ember. I think I’ve seen the spell you’ve used before, and it won’t last forever. You may be powerful, but you’re no match for me-” Twilight started, but then was interrupted but another confident laugh from Ember. “Oh Twilight Sparkle, Princess Celestia’s top student, so talented in so many areas," Night Ember parroted sarcastically, "Well you’ve made the same mistake that Celestia had made a thousand years ago: just because you can do a lot of things well doesn’t mean you should underestimate another pony who can do one thing unfathomably well. I’ve invented hundreds of dragon spells that only I know, and am the only unicorn powerful enough to accomplish them. Accept your fate, Twilight Sparkle, you’re nothing compared to me and my allies. Do you even know what I’ve done to Celestia? Do you even know what I’m about to to do you?” Twilight stuttered, she didn’t know what had happened to the princess; a large dragon had been covering her with their wing since Night Ember had cast her spell. Twilight was worried for all of their lives, they were at Ember's mercy. Wouldn’t she have already killed them or dragged them away? What if they were only here to witness her power trip? “I don’t know what you have planned Night Ember” Twilight began courageously, “But no matter what you do, just know that you will be defeated. Maybe by us, maybe by Celestia, or maybe-” “Oh but you know what the best twist is? Celestia is completely on my side!” “What?!” the six ponies screamed at once. “Oh yes! Firefly, move your wing and show these ponies their princess!” Night Ember called to the with their wing over Celestia. The dragon nodded, and all that was underneath was a white, pearly egg. Twilight and her friends gasped nearly in tandem. “Well, maybe not right now, but once a full day has passed the spell will be complete and she will be reborn as a baby dragon, having no memory of you or anypony else. All she’ll know is that I’m her mother--baby dragons are extremely loyal to their mothers and believe everything they say. And even after she’s grown to a point where she can think for herself, who is she going to side with--her pony oppressors, or her loving dragon family? It’s absolutely brilliant and there’s nothing that you or anypony else can do to stop it!” Night Ember smiled again proudly, savoring every moment of her brilliantly executed victory. Twilight looked at Ember in horror; she had never heard of any spell that could do this before, Night Ember was more powerful than she could have imagined. Twilight took in a deep breath, this was no time to panic, her and her friends had been through worse and she’ll be darned if she'd give up already. “You may think you’ve won Night Ember, but you haven’t. You didn't let me finish before: it’s true that you are more powerful than me, but you’re nothing compared to me, and my friends. Even if you try and lock us away forever, the power of friendship is stronger than any chains, dragon or dungeon!” Twilight announced triumphantly. “Yeah!” Rainbow Dash yelled, “And when we do we’re going to banish you and your dirty dragon friends back where they came!” “You stupid-- ponies!” Night screeched, diving towards Rainbow Dash with hate filling her eyes from the insult of her kind, “Don’t you realize I could effortlessly do the same to you that I did to the Princess?” “So, why don’t you?” Rainbow Dash challenged, not unlocking her eyes from Night's. Both ponies breathed heavily in the emotion of the situation. A wicked grin spread across Night Ember’s face as she carefully landed. “Why that would be too easy for you!” She spat, still cackling ever more hammily, “I have something much better planned. You can’t just start over, you must watch helplessly as your kingdom is destroyed and there’s nothing you can do about it.” “How are you going to do that?” Fluttershy asked fearfully. “I've planned this all out perfectly! You know the old saying, don’t judge a pony ‘till you’ve trot a mile in their horseshoes?” Night asked while the other ponies suspiciously nodded, “Well I thought the best twist would be to turn you each into a different dragon, but given your ages you’ll be stuck as a baby for another hundred years!” “What?!” Rarity screamed, horrified, “You wouldn’t dare!” Rainbow Dash challenged, “There are different types of dragons?” Pinkie Pie asked, confused. “Yes you waste of- UHG!” Night Ember, frustrated at the ignorance of her prisoners, “I mean- yes. If any ponies actually bothered to take interest in these magnificent creatures they would know that there are actually seventeen different types of dragons. My favorite part is that even if you somehow manage to collect the elements of harmony, they are only in tune with the rhythms of friendship within ponies, not dragons! Though this is an infuriating form of speciesism, it does work for my poetic justice. Now who should I start with? This is going to be tough. Should I begin with Celestia’s number one student? No I think I’ll save you for last...” “How about you start with my back hoof in your face?” Rainbow Dash challenged. “Ah, yes. The loud rainbow one. I hear you’re the fastest flyer in Equestria, it’d be a shame to lose that. Your new form is-- the Lightning dragon! Fast and fierce, but not too bright, like you.” Night Ember’s horn began to glow, and a spark of lightning erupted from it and shot towards Rainbow Dash. All that could be heard was the reverberation of the sheer power and the faint yell from Dash. After the smoke cleared, in Rainbow’s place was a small, sleek blue and rainbow baby dragon. Everypony gasped at the sight of their friend. “What did you do to her?” Twilight demanded “Holy fangs and scales, were you even listening before?" Night Ember yelled, frustrated again with her prisoners, "I turned your friend into a Lightning dragon, just like I said two seconds ago. TWO SECONDS AGO!Don’t worry, she still has her memories and personality, just a little different look. It’s a much simpler spell than the one I performed on Celestia, not a complete re-boot, but it still gets the desired effect...” “Oh when I get my claws on you-” The rainbow dragon snarled. The other ponies murmured in anxious anticipation for what was about to come. Spike was still being held on the sidelines by Wasp, and he had no clue what to do. Even if he could escape from this older dragon, was there anything he could do? “Now onto somepony else, hmm who should I pick? How about we go with the other pegasus, little Fluttershy. So small and bashful, you look to me like-- a Pixy dragon!” Another lightning bolt shot out from Night Ember’s horn at Fluttershy, and again the smoke cleared to reveal Night’s work: a tiny yellow and pink dragon with buzzing wings. “Oh my...” Fluttershy murmured, perplexed at her new claws and scales. However, when she looked up and realized that she was only about as big as a pony’s ear, she eeped and hid in the arms of her now confused captor. Night Ember only chuckled, becoming quite proud of her new power. “Now, who’s next?” Night Ember asked aloud. “Ooo! Do me!” Pinkie excitedly volunteered, “Do me next! Me me meee!” Night Ember rolled her eyes at the pink earth pony. “Fine, lets get the annoying one out of the way next. Hmm, excitable and stupid, how about the Bubble dragon? That seems about right-” And with that, Night Ember fired another beam directly at Pinkie Pie. After the spell was cast, her friends could see that she was now a small, chubby baby dragon with a large snout and rounded scales. After blinking her large, blue eyes a few times and looking at her new hands and feet, Pinkie only giggled at Night’s handywork. “Shut up!” Night Ember yelled, beginning to weaken after all of these powerful spells, “Don’t you realize that that spell has sealed your defeat? Do you dare laugh at the form of this mighty beast?” She was only met by Pinkie’s mumbled giggles. “Whatever. Now, where’s that other earth pony, Applejack? Ah, there you are. You’re the strong one aren’t you? Well then, the Clobber dragon would fit you well.” Night Ember fired another spell at AppleJack. When her friends could see her again, Applejack was a lot bigger than the other baby dragons, but still a bit smaller than a pony. Her bright green eyes glared at Night Ember as she picked up her hat. “So that’s a pretty great parlor trick ya’ got there, ah hope yer at least making your new friends proud causin’ all this chaos...” Applejack grumbled through her fangs. “Oh I can assure you my friends will be very happy by the time this plan is through. Now, onto sweet little Rarity. Sure think you’re something special don’t you sweetheart?” “Well I can tell you I’d rather be a dragon than a pony like you any day!” Rarity spat. “Well, uh, I’d rather be a great leader than a sheep like you any day!” Night spat back, “Anyways, I thought you’d appreciate being the Jade dragon for it’s beauty and because it’s so rare, or, whatever.” Night Ember transformed her into a thin, long, pearly dragon with amethyst crest scales. “Well, at the very least I can admire your choice in style, for a traitorous buffoon.” Rarity mumbled. Night Ember, panting and smiling, becoming more and more pleased in her power over Twilight’s friends even though the powerful spells were clearly wearing her out. “Oh, and last, but very least, we have the miraculous Twilight Sparkle: Celestia’s number one student. I thought it’d be hilarious if you’d be the same species as your servant Spike. Does that sound good? Maybe then you could empathize with your prisoner a bit more.” Night Ember said flatly. “Spike was never my- Ahh!” Twilight started before Night’s spell hit. The bright magic crackled and reverberated around her body. When Twilight was finally revealed, she looked nearly identical to Spike; the only difference between them was their color and Twilight’s more feminine eyes. Night Ember sat down then cackled again, impressed though exhausted with her own handiwork and assured victory. “Now’s your chance to take your revenge Spike” Night called to the baby dragon, “Now’s your chance to tell Twilight just how you felt about being bossed around and trapped for all these years. Go ahead, she has nothing over you now!” “No.” Spike said simply; this surprised Night Ember. “You, you don’t have to lie anymore Spike! Show her what a dragon can really do to somepony who’s wronged them!” Night said as she struggled to stand again. “I’d never do that!” Spike called out again, “Sure, sometimes I might have leaving, and can sometimes get frustrated when she’s busy and doesn’t think about my feelings, but Twilight’s my friend! She’s risked her life to save me, and always puts me first in the end over what she wants. I’m sure that if I’d really wanted to leave, she would say yes if she knew that that’s what would make me happy, but I’d never leave her because she needs me and I need her! Twilight and her friends are the kindest, most loving creatures that I’ve ever met, and you’ve got a lot of nerve putting these spells on them and saying that they don’t care! Do you know what would make me happy Night Ember? If you would put my friends back to normal and leave us and Equestria in peace!” There was a long silence as Night Ember stared down at Spike. “You really feel that way?” Night Ember asked “With all my heart” Spike answered. Night Ember glared down at the dragon. “You’ve been brainwashed by them!” “I haven’t!” “You’d side with your captors and oppressors?!” “They aren’t captors, they love me!” “You should be ashamed to call yourself a dragon, you’re more a pony than any-” Night started, then grew another evil smile across her face. “You don’t deserve to wear those scales” Night hissed. She struggled, charging another powerful spell and shot it straight at Spike “Spike nooo!” Twilight cried, scared for her friend, “What twisted morals do you think you have, hurting 'your own kind' just because he disagreed with you?” “He’s not my kind” Night chuckled, and as the smoke cleared a young, purple colt was laying on the floor by Wasp and Night’s feet. Author's Note fixed the formatting issues! Chapter Two: Hatching a PlanTwilight’s friends stared stunned at Spike. After a minute of silence, he coughed and slowly tried to stand. “What did you- Aah!” He cried, looking at his hooves. Instead of his small dragon body, he was now a young earth pony: with a purple coat and spiky green hair. As he tried to stand on two legs, he fumbled over face first into the ground. “Spike! Are you ok?” Twilight called, fighting her dragon guard to run to him. “Let her go, she’s no threat to us anymore” Night Ember called to the guard, and the larger dragon dropped Twilight. She ran over to him, and looked in his giant pony eyes. “I’m fine Twilight. Are you guys ok?” Spike asked, rubbing his sore head “Well that was a real nice show of power,” Rarity huffed, “Now that you’ve taken away our identities, crippled the Princess, destroyed the Castle and absolutely ruined my new hat, what were you thinking of next? Oh do please say it’s not the dungeon.” “No, it’s not the dungeon Rarity. Now that what little power you all had are gone, I have no more need to worry about you saps; you can go back to Ponyville or wherever mud hole you like. Now that you’re dragons you can’t do magic, you can’t use the elements of harmony and you have no more allies. Heck, after a few hundred years I might turn you back into ponies, but it will be far too late to save your precious pony Princess. Guards- let them go.” And with that, the dragons that were holding the once-pony friends dropped them harshly onto the marble floor. While most of them stumbled on their two legs and tried to regain their bearings, Rainbow Dash took to the air and dive-bombed strait towards Night Ember. Unimpressed, Night extended one wing before Rainbow Dash hit, knocking her onto the rug. “I suggest you six appreciate my great mercy and leave my castle before I change my mind” Night Ember said dryly as she exhaustively slumped to the floor. “That’s a good idea girls, lets go” Applejack directed "Lets leave this old ham with her new friends." The six dragons and Spike slowly made their way out of the hall and out of the castle. There was an uncomfortable silence as they trodded through the dragon infested halls. However, the strange silence was broken once they opened the castle's doors onto Canterlot where they were met with a great tumult. Outside Canterlot Castle was sheer panic: nopony outside knew what to do and they could only scream and run in terror of their new oppressors. The group snuck to the outside of an abandoned cafe to plan. The afternoon sky began filling with harsh black smoke. “Ok everypony, er, everydragon: we need to stop Night Ember and get the elements of harmony before tomorrow at noon or Celestia’s going to be gone forever” Twilight instructed. “But we can’t use the Elements while we’re dragons, remember? The only one here that could use ‘em is Spike and I doubt he could be all six” Applejack reminded. Twilight stared thoughtfully into space. “Well then, we’ll just have to figure out a way to turn back into ponies. There could be something like this in one of my books back home, we might as well start there!” Twilight proposed. “How are we supposed to get home Twilight? This place is pure Chaos!” Rainbow Dash whined. “Ooo! It looks like the trains are still running!” Pinkie exclaimed, pointing at the nearby station that was boarding. “Uh-oh, it looks like this is the last train to ponyville though and it’s leavin’ soon! We better get goin’!” Applejack urged. “Now wait just one second Applejack, how are we supposed to get on the train like this?” Rarity asked, “I doubt they’ll let six dragons on board during a dragon takeover.” “It’s a drago-pocalypse! It’s arma-dragon!” Pinkie Pie screamed excitedly. Her friends gave her a disappointed look. “Well, maybe we could hide in some luggage and get on the train that way” Rarity suggested, “There’s a bunch of bags in the lost and found that have been there for ages, I'm sure nopony would mind if we borrowed them.” “Good idea Rarity,” Twilight encouraged, “But how are we going to get the bags onto the train? They only take bags from passengers, and I doubt any of us are going to fool the conductor.” “Final emergency train to Ponyville now boarding! This train is leaving the station in five minutes!” The conductor called out. The six friends racked their brain, desperately trying to think of a plan. “Wait a second, duh!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed, “We don’t need to trick the conductor, we have Spike!” “Wait, what?!” Spike asked nervously “Of course! Rainbow Dash, you’re a genious! Spike, would you be ok taking us all on board?” “I- I don’t know. I’ve never been a pony before, I have no clue how I’m supposed to act!” “Oh Spikey Wikey, it’s much easier than you’re making it out to be; just be yourself dear” Rarity encouraged. “Now just hold yer hay everypony: how are we supposed to get Spike on that train? Even though it’s an emergency the conductor’s still requirin’ tickets,” Applejack said, “and the booth’s so busy that we’ll never buy a new one in time, I don’t think any of us even have any money no more.” “Drat, I lost my ticket and my money at some point when Night Ember took over. Think girls, maybe if-” Twilight started “Ooo wait! I think I still have my ticket!” Pinkie Pie offered “You do? How’d you manage to hang onto that?” Rainbow Dash asked “I always keep super-duper important stuff in my hair so I don’t lose it” Pinkie Pie giggled, reaching into the mess of scales on top of her head. After a bit of digging, she proudly pulled out a crumpled round-trip train ticket. “Ta-da!” She exclaimed excitedly. “Perfect!” Twilight affirmed, “Alright girls, lets get to the lost and found, and get on that train!” “Last call for boarding! Last call for boarding the emergency train to Ponyville!” The conductor called out. “Wait! Hold that train!” Spike called out, dragging three large bags behind him. “You’re just in time son, here, let me get those bags for you” The conductor offered, “These’ll have to go in the back, is that alright with you?” “Uh, is there any way I could have them beside my seat?” Spike asked hopefully. “Sorry, this train is packed and we gotta go. You’ve got a ticket?” “Oh, uh, why yes I do!” Spike bumbled, trying to pull out his ticket with his hooves. Once he got it, he quickly lost his grip and started juggling it around, desperately trying to manage his new hands and get the ticket to the conductor. “Woah son, don’t worry I got it,” The conductor said supportively and grabbed the ticket. However, once he got a good look at it he stared questioningly up at Spike. “Uh, son? Is this your ticket?” The conductor asked. “Yes?” Spike answered nervously. “So you’re trying to tell me that you are Pinkamena Diane Pie?” The conductor suspiciously looked over Spike. “Well, uh, why yes?” Spike stuttered back nervously. The conductor didn’t break his disapproving stare over Spike. Suddenly, they heard another conductor’s voice from inside the train. “Smokey! What are you doing out there, this train has to get out of here stat! A couple more dragons were seen approaching the mountain pass and we gotta get over it before the whole railroad’s in pieces!” the other pony called. The conductor sighed and pulled Spike into the train just before it began moving. “Ok son, if it wasn’t an emergency we’d have a few questions for you back at the train station, but next time buy your own ticket and don’t use your sister’s old round-trip one, ok?” the conductor lectured as he closed the train door. “Oh! Yes sir, of course sir” Spike stammered, “Um, you don’t suppose my luggage got on in time do you? I had some really important stuff in there-” “Oh don’t worry, I’m positive it all got on board. Now you better get to a seat, this area’s for conductors and engineers only.” The conductor ushered Spike to the passenger area, and it was absolutely packed with ponies. Spike managed to find an empty seat in the corner, and he sat down to try and collect his thoughts. “Ug, Rarity stop pushing!” “Well Rainbow Dash your wing is right in my face!” “Rarity you’re taking up the entire suitcase, just move over!” “Everyone, quiet down! There could still be a worker in this area. And Rarity seriously stop pushing us!” Twilight hushed. “This is ridiculous, did anypony else’s bag even make it on the train? Are we even on the train?” Rainbow Dash whined, “Hey! Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy and Applejack, you guys there!?” “Shhh! Rainbow how hard is it to keep quiet? If anypony finds out we’re here, we’re toast! So we have to stay silent!” Twilight scolded. “We’re here!” Pinkie Pie yelled from a few bags away, “And I think I heard Applejack not too far away!” “Pinkie quiet!” Twilight shushed. “Well this plan is just turning out beautifully” Rarity sighed sarcastically, “Shushing each other in the dark is going to do no good, we’ve got to get a look outside to see if there’s any train workers out there.” “Can anypony sink their claws into the bag to rip open a hole or something?” Rainbow Dash asked, “I would but Rarity’s sitting on one arm and the other one’s asleep.” “Here, let me try” Twilight offered. She took one finger and carefully poked a small hole into the bag. She spied into it, looking for any workers outside. “Looks like the coast is clear, but we probably would have been thrown out already anyways if there was anypony within earshot” Twilight reported. “Does that mean that we can get out of here?” Rainbow Dash asked, “I can’t take any more of this stupid bag.” “Too risky. Just because nopony’s here now doesn’t mean we’re going to be alone the entire trip. Anyways, I think it’s impossible to open up these bags from the inside without tearing them to pieces.” All of a sudden, the group inside heard a small click and their bag split open. After regaining her bearings, Twilight looked up and saw Pinkie Pie standing over them next to the bag’s lock. “Pinkie! How did you get out of your bag?! We need those to get out of the train, remember?” Twilight asked, stunned. “Oh it was easy-peasy! There was already a little hole in the top if you sat just right, and Fluttershy climbed out and unlocked the bag!” Pinkie explained. Twilight looked up and saw tiny Fluttershy buzzing above their heads. “Wow, good thinking Fluttershy! Rainbow Dash: go see if you can lock the door into this room so nopony walks in on us.” With that, Rainbow nodded and dashed to the door with her mission. “How are you doing Fluttershy? You haven’t said much at all this trip, are you ok?” Twilight asked. Fluttershy nodded. “Yes, just a little-- startled” she replied quietly. “The door was locked when I got there, I don’t think this is a popular place on the train” Rainbow Dash reported as she glided down to where everybody else was standing. “Wait, where’s Applejack?” Twilight asked. “I’m over here everypony!” they heard Applejack yell under a large pile of luggage. “Oh great, how are we supposed to get her out of that?” Rainbow whined. “Fluttershy: get down there and see if you can unlock her suitcase. Everyone else let’s try and dig her out” Twilight directed. The dragons scampered to where they heard the yell while Fluttershy hesitantly crawled into the caverns of mixed luggage. “Ug, why is everything so heavy!” Rainbow Dash complained as she tried to lift a medium floral bag. “Well remember we don’t have our size anymore, and I’m not sure how strong the average baby dragon is” Twilight reminded, “We’ll just have to do our best, and the worst that could happen is Applejack will just have to wait until we arrive in Ponyville to get out.” “I unlocked her bag,” Fluttershy said as she climbed out between the cracks of two large bags, “but I’m not sure-” Suddenly, the bags exploded out of the way and the group was covered in luggage. All that was left in the baggage crater was Applejack and her split-open suitcase. “Heh, sorry everypony” Applejack apologized as she uncovered her friends, “Ah guess I don’t know my own strength there.” “Well I suppose not all baby dragons are created equal when it comes to strength” Twilight muttered, rubbing her head as Applejack removed a large trunk that was on top of her, “Is everypony, uh, everyone ok?” “Yeah, we’re good” Rainbow Dash mumbled as she dusted herself off. “Wait a second, where’s Fluttershy?” Rarity asked in horror. The group gasped and began flipping over bags to search for their tiny friend. “Mmmphmhm mmmph!” Pinkie garbled, obviously with something crammed in her mouth. “Pinkie what is it?” Twilight asked, annoyed “Mhmm mph, blaaa-” Pinkie Pie started again, then spit whatever was in her mouth out. Lo and behold, out came a very slimy and dazed Fluttershy. “My word dear are you alright?” Rarity asked. “Oh, yes” Fluttershy answered, “Just a little- sticky...” “I’m so sorry Fluttershy! When that bag hit me you just flew right in!” Pinkie Pie apologised. “Oh no, it’s actually quite roomy in there.” “Alright girls” Twilight began, trying to regain the focus in the room, “So here’s the plan: Rarity, keep your eyes out the window and tell us the second that we’re out of the mountains so we have lots of time to get back into our bags; then we’ll do our little escape attempt backwards. We’ll pack Applejack back up as best as we can, Pinkie and Fluttershy will help Rarity, Rainbow and I get into our suitcase, then they’ll slip back into their bag, understood?” “Right!” Rainbow Dash affirmed as she saluted. “What can we do when we get back to Ponyville?” Applejack asked as she dusted off her hat. “Well, we can head straight for the library and we can look through all my books for anything about dragons, and especially anything about dragon spells.” “But Twilight, I’d never seen any spells like that before! Do you think you would have any books about them?” Rarity worriedly asked as she made her way to the window, “And even if you did, how could you perform them as a dragon?” Twilight looked down thoughtfully; there was a long pause as she racked her brain for answers. “I don’t know” Twilight admitted somberly; a faint pop could be heard in the background, “I really don’t know what we can do.” *pop* “But I do know one thing for certain: no matter what happens, we can’t give up” *pop* “We’ve been through eternal night, dragons, hydras-pretty much every mythical creature in equestria- and we didn’t give up!” *pop* “Horsefeathers, we’ve even had our personalities taken away from us and were still able to defeat Discord! Did it look hopeless then?” *pop* “Of course it did! But did we give up?” *pop-pop* “No! We couldn’t give up because all of Equestria needed us,” *pop* “and now Equestria and Princess Celestia needs us now more than ever!” *pop* *pop-pop* “I know that together, no matter what happens-” *pop-pop-pop* *POP* “Pinkie whatever you are doing could you please cut that out!” Everyone looked over at Pinkie Pie who was now sitting in the corner, in the midst of blowing bubbles. “Wait, what? Pinkie how are you doing that?” Applejack asked. “I dunno” Pinkie Pie giggled, “I can just sorta blow bubbles, watch!” Pinkie Pie took in a deep breath, then began blowing large bluish bubbles from her beak. “Woah!” Rainbow Dash yelled “I know! But watch this!” Pinkie took in an even bigger breath and began blowing another bubble. This time it looked as though there was a fire inside of the bubble, and after it straight up and hit the ceiling of the train car, it burst with a loud BANG. “Pinkie Pie, I’m happy that you can blow bubbles and all, but would you mind not doing so while I’m trying to make a speech?” “Ooo! No wait wait wait, I think I’m getting the hang of this!” Pinkie shushed. She took in another deep breath, focused hard then began blowing another bubble. The fire in this one was a lot brighter, and when it hit the roof of the train car it exploded with an even louder burst, and sent a shower of sparkles down on the floor. Pinkie Pie giggled excitedly at her new skill. “The bags!” Twilight yelled out, as she pointed to a bag on the floor that had caught fire from the bubble’s explosion. Applejack quickly ran over and beat the fire out with her tail before it spread to the rest of the car. “Pinkie, you really have to be more careful,” Twilight warned, “Not only could you have set the train on fire but I’m sure one of the conductors must have heard that. We better get back into our bags and-” “Um, everypony-” Rarity began “Calm down Twilight!” Rainbow Dash laughed, “That was totally awesome and the door’s locked anyways.” “Girls I really think you should see this-” Rarity started again, looking nervously out the window. “Rainbow Dash that’s not the point!” Twilight lectured “Twilight there’s something-” Rarity warned again fruitlessly. “Wait a minute, do you think that that was how Pinkie Pie breaths fire?” Applejack asked, “That would make sense since Night Ember called her a Bubble Dragon” “But everypony-” Rarity tried again “Awesome! Do you think I can breath fire too?” Rainbow Dash interrupted, then began to wheeze in an attempt to make a flame “If you could all just please-” Rarity tried to slip in anxiously “That’s not how you breath fire silly!” Pinkie Pie giggled. “Um, I think Rarity’s trying to-” Fluttershy began, hoping to help her friend get a word in. “No! No more fires on the train!” Twilight insisted, “We’re not burning this whole thing down just to do a little experimenting!” “WOULD EVERYPONY PLEASE JUST SHUT THEIR TRAP FOR JUST ONE SECOND!” Rarity screamed and everyone looked towards her in shock, “There’s something outside the train that you girls desperately need to-” Before Rarity could finish, something large hit against the side of the train and the friends were thrown around the train car. “What in tarnation was that?” Applejack asked, flustered “That’s what I was attempting to tell everypony” Rarity groaned, “There was a group of dragons flying towards the tracks, I think they're trying to stop the train!” Sure enough, three small dragons were slamming against the train tracks and others were doing their best to derail the train. The six friends could feel the train charging faster and faster as the dragons batted at it. “Why are we goin’ so fast when the train’s so unstable?” Applejack asked “They’re probably trying to outrun the dragons” Twilight explained, “They’ve probably put the engines on full, closed all the windows and- oh no!” “What is it Twilight?” Pinkie Pie asked “Sometimes in emergencies in order to make the train go faster they disconnect the luggage cars!” Twilight blurted. Everyone looked towards the door leading to the rest of the train and they saw one of the engineers loosening the connectors between their cars. “Noo!” Rainbow Dash screamed as she flew towards the door. She struggled with the lock, and the conductor looked into the car with horror and began pushing down on the disconnect lever more anxiously, slamming his body onto the red switch. Twilight ran to help her friend, but it was too late: they heard a sharp click and could see the train car in front of them speeding ahead. Gradually they felt their own car wobbling and slowing to a halt. The ponies' once hopeful attitude deflated with the slowing of the train car. “What now? It’ll take us forever to get to Ponyville after that! Lot of good it would have done us anyways. Stupid Night Ember with her stupid dragon spells...” Rainbow Dash trailed off. “Wait, that’s it!” Twilight exclaimed. “Wh- what do you mean?” Fluttershy asked. “It wouldn’t have done us any good to go to Ponyville, I don’t have any spells about dragons or even books about dragons, but you know who does?” “Night Ember!” Pinkie Pie answered excitedly “Exactly! If we can make it to Night Ember’s library, I’m sure she’ll have every sort of spell we’ll ever need to defeat her!” “Yeah! Great thinking Twilight!” Rainbow Dash encouraged, “Now lets get out of this stupid train car!” Rainbow Dash clung to the door and continued frustratedly fiddling with the handle. “Drat! It’s stuck! Stupid dragon hands with their stupid no strength-” Rainbow Dash mumbled. Applejack crawled up beside her and watched Rainbow Dash struggle for a few more attempts. “Mind if I give it a go?” Applejack asked, motioning towards the door. Rainbow Dash simply let go of the door and backed up, fed up with the situation. Applejack gave a harsh kick to the lock and the door went shooting off the car; Rainbow Dash just huffed. “Wait a minute what about Spike?” Rarity asked, concerned, “He’s still on the train to Ponyville. Little Spikey-Wikey will be all alone, he won’t know what the plan is and he won’t know if we’re safe or not.” “Hmm, good point Rarity,” Twilight said, stepping off the train car, “I’d hate for him to be all alone; nopony will recognise him now that he’s a pony. What we need is a messenger to tell him that we’re ok and he should just wait it out in the library.” “How about Rainbow Dash” Applejack offered, “It looks like the trains gonna make it all the way to Ponyville, she could fly there and deliver the message lickity-split” “Wait a second!” Rainbow Dash argued, “Why do I have to go to Ponyville when you guys get to go to Night Ember’s secret hideout? Fluttershy has wings too you know and I bet any of you could walk there just fine!” “Rainbow Dash, you’re the fastest one here and we need to move with the utmost speed. You’re the best one out of all of us to get the job done!” Twilight pleaded “Well, I guess if I’m the best and fastest one here” Rainbow Dash smiled, “But I don’t want to be stuck in boring-old Ponyville while Equestria’s in danger, how do I find you guys once I tell Spike what’s going on?” The ponies pondered for a moment, wondering how they could signal Rainbow Dash. They couldn’t simply meet at Night Ember’s cottage because they were unsure how long it would take them on foot, but they were too small to be seen from the sky. Suddenly, Twilight had an idea. “Wait a minute! Pinkie: how big, high and bright do you think you could make one of your bubbles go?” Twilight asked. Pinkie positioned herself for the challenge, took in a big gulp of air, then blew one of her biggest bubbles. It floated up into the sky to about 25 feet, then exploded in a blue and yellow firework. “Do you think you could see that Rainbow Dash?” Twilight asked. “No problem! Just don’t forget to keep blowing those every so often, I do not want to lose you guys. Oh and Twilight, what was that message again?” Rainbow Dash asked. As Twilight and Rainbow Dash discussed what they wanted to tell Spike, the remaining friends oriented themselves and psyched themselves up for a trip into the Smoky Mountains. Chapter Three: Scaling the Great UnknownSpike looked frantically around the train car, the place was in pure chaos. They still could hear the dragon just a few hundred meters behind them and nopony knew what to do. All he could hear was the roar of the train engine and the screams of the other frightened ponies. “Why’s this happening?!” “We’re all going to die!” “Can’t this train go any faster?” The passengers inside felt another sharp hit to the side of the traincar. “It’s those blasted dragons!” “I don’t understand, dragons have never attacked us before!” “Wait, is the train moving faster now?” And indeed it was, Spike could feel the engine pulling the cars forward at an amazing pace. He managed to scoot close enough to a window to see the dragon falling behind. There was a large cheer from all the passengers in the train, and Spike let out a huge sigh of relief. Slowly, everypony on the train began calming down, and Spike once again settled in his seat. Then, he heard the hoofsteps of an engineer coming down the hallway. “That was amazing” Spike congratulated the engineer, “How’d you get the train to go so fast?” “Well, in emergencies we have all hooves on deck, it’s amazing what a team can do under pressure. Also, since this was a real emergency we took all the emergency measures and let some weight off the train to get her wheels really goin’.’” “Wow, that’s really great- wait a second, did you say let some weight off the train?” Spike asked worriedly. “Ur, yeah. Unfortunately we had to lose the baggage cars, but we figured you ponies lives were a lot better than those bags” The engineer admitted. “No! No no no no!” Spike sputtered, “You can’t get rid of those! I had some very important bags on there!” “Sorry little guy, but it was either lose the baggage cars or lose the whole train. It looked like there was even a small swarm of those little dragons in there so we wouldn’t have had much of a chance. I’m sure your mom or dad will forgive you, I mean, ponies are more important than luggage, right? And we’ll be out of the mountains and back in Ponyville in no time, you’ll see!” “Yeah” Spike muttered as the conductor went to the front of the train. Spike smooshed his face against the window, straining his eyes to look for the discarded train car, but it was already out of sight. It was a long trip to Ponyville, even going at full speed, but Spike somehow wished it was longer. He was scared of going into this weird new world alone, and at least on the train car he was kind of safe from having to walk in his clunky new feet or open doors without his hands. However, he did arrive in Ponyville; it was a little calmer there than in Canterlot, but there was still an uneasiness in the air. All anypony could see was the dragons swarming around Canterlot Castle like bees over a flaming hive, and black smoke spewing out from the city. Spike carefully exited the train while the rest of the ponies ran out in a worried flurry, their eyes fixated on the overtaken capital, but his mind stayed on his missing friends. He was scared, confused and alone; Spike had no clue what to do without Twilight or anypony else. Unfortunately, he wasn't paying attention to his hooves and fell face first down the steps off the train platform. He rubbed his head, when somepony extended their hoof to help them up. "You alright little pony?" The old green pony asked Spike, "that was sure a nasty fall you took there." Spike looked up and recognized the old pony as Granny Smith. Spike felt shocked and embarrassed; he didn't want Granny Smith to recognize him, he might be seen as a spy, or at the very least be locked away for being an ex-dragon. He lowered his head and quickly got up. "Oh, um, thank you m'am" Spike mumbled as he began walking off. "Wait a minute little guy!" Granny called out after Spike, "do I know you from somewhere? I've met a lot of ponies in my day but you do seem real familiar..." "Uh, I don't think so," Spike lied, "I've just got, um, one of those faces I guess." He had stopped walking to be polite, but was now slowly backing up to escape. "No no, t'aint your face," Granny stated again, "oh! You know what it is? It's your voice!" "Ah, that's what it is!" Spike chuckled nervously, "Well, mystery solved! I should probably get going-" "Wait a darn-tootin' minute, that's not just it," Granny interrupted again, "Yer coat looks a might familiar too. You sure we haven't met before? Ever heard of Apple Strudel?" "Granny! Granny!" Spike heard somepony yell, "Applejack never got off the train, and neither did any of her friends, me and Big Mac are getting' worried!" Applejack's little sister Applebloom was running towards him and Granny Smith. Spike was starting to panic; the more ponies who knew him before, the more likely he was going to get found out. "Well, it was nice meeting you folks but I really have to go" Spike said, scrambling to get away, "Thank you for your hoof Granny Smith." Spike was almost out of range when Granny Smith called out to him. "That was a pretty impressive trick," Granny Smith began, suspicious, "Knowin' my name even though we haven't met before." Spike stopped dead in his tracks, the jig was up. "Uh, well, Applebloom just said it!" Spike yelled, trying to cover his tracks. "Naw, she only said Granny." "Wait a minute, how did you know my name?" Applebloom asked, confused. The three Apples stared at Spike, waiting for an answer. Spike looked from pony to pony, trying to think of another lie that could get him out of this one. "Look little fritter," Granny started, earnestly concerned for him, "are you in trouble or somethin'? I hope you know that we'll do anything we can to help you out, no matter who ya are. Now son, do you think you could tell us your name?" Spike sighed, he was so afraid to trust the Apples, but he didn't know what else to do. "Woah! Where'd you get that cutie mark?" Applebloom suddenly cried out, staring at Spike's rump, "I've never seen that cutie mark before! What's your talent?" Spike looked back at where Applebloom was looking, he hadn't noticed that he had a cutie mark. It was a simple bright, green swirling flame, just like the kind he used to make as a dragon right before Celestia sent a letter. "Well, uh-" Spike began "It looks awful familiar, kinda like the kind that Spike would- Spike!” Applebloom suddenly called out in realization. “What! No!” Spike began, backing up away from the Apples “Yes! That’s who ya’ sound like! The little dragon that Twilight has!” Granny hollered. “Is that really you Spike? How’d y’all get like this?” Applebloom asked. “No! Um, I just-” Spike scrambled, trying to think of any explanation. As he continued shuffling away, he backed right into Big Macintosh; Spike was trapped. The three ponies earnestly looked at Spike for an answer. “Spike,” Big Macintosh began, “Are you in some kinda trouble?” Spike lowered his head and sat down, defeated. He was defeated by his lies and defeated by all the terrible things that had happened that day. “Yes” Spike softly wailed, starting to cry, “I just don’t know what to do. Me and Twilight and her friends went up to Canterlot to meet some sort of fan of hers called Night Ember, but when we got there, she wasn’t a fan at all. These dragons suddenly attacked the castle and burst through the windows, and they trapped everyone. Then Night Ember told everyone that ponies had been oppressing dragons, and she even asked me if I’d been oppressed and I didn’t even defend my friends.” While Spike was talking, the Apples simply sat close and listened to every word. “I didn’t really understand what’s happening, I think she turned Princess Celestia into a dragon egg, and she turned the rest of my friends into baby dragons and told them that they can’t use the Elements of Harmony. When she told me to tell Twilight what I really felt and to-- to hurt her I just couldn’t!”, Spike began crying harder, “I just couldn’t hurt my friends like that and I didn’t know what was going on, so I told Night Ember no and, and she got upset, then her magic hit me and I woke up and I was a pony! “I can’t use my hands anymore, I can’t breath fire, I can’t stand on two legs, I can’t even use my tail anymore! It, it stinks. Then, then Night Ember told us to leave, so we all snuck on the train to Ponyville; they were in the luggage car and I stayed in the passenger car. But, but then dragons started to attack the train, and, and the engineers disconnected the luggage car, and I, I don’t know-” Spike began sobbing, “I just feel like this is all my fault.” “What?!” Applebloom yelled. “Spike, none of this is ‘yer fault deerie-” Granny Smith started. “But it is, kind of, some of it. I just feel guilty because I couldn’t defend my friends.” Spike whimpered. Big Mac smiled, then comfortingly put his front leg around Spike. “Now Spike, the fact that you’re a pony just shows you did defend your friends” Big Mac comforted. Spike clumsily wiped away some of his tears then looked up at Big Mac thankfully. “Now I’ve heard a lot of sad stories in my day” Granny began, “But that’s got to be one of the worst, and I’ll be darn-tootin’ if we can’t help ‘ya fix it!” “Really?” Spike blathered, looking up at Granny Smith, “you would do that for me?” “Why a’course!” Applebloom insisted, “you’re our friend! And who else can you rely on if you can’t rely on good friends!” Spike thanked the Apples profusely as he tried to give them all big pony hugs, but it was a lot different giving hugs on four legs as opposed to two and he fell over when he tried to give one to Applebloom. They all laughed together as Granny Smith wiped some of Spikes tears away. “But I don’t know what to do now! Should I go back to the library where we said we’d meet? Should I go out looking for them? Should-” “Woah slow down little fella! Just calm your barrel, we’ll figure something out” Granny encouraged. “But what if they’re not ok? It’s not like they’re just going to fall out of the sky and tell me they’re alright!” “Wait a minute,” Applebloom hushed, “do y’all hear that?” The four ponies went silent, and they heard a low rumble in the sky, like something was speeding towards them. As they looked up, they saw a streak of blue and rainbow heading straight for them. “Hit the hay!” Granny Smith yelled as the group quickly ducked as the streak of light flew over their heads and crashed into a nearby bush. The group got up and ran towards the crash to investigate. “Well would ya look at that!” Applebloom exclaimed. Lying in the bush was dragon Rainbow Dash, rubbing her sore head from impact. “Rainbow!” Spike cried, “I’m so glad you’re here! Is everyone else ok?” “Ug, yeah, everypony’s fine. Jeez, these wings are great but it’s impossible to land...” “Where is everyone? Should I go back into the mountains with them? Are they coming here?” Spike continued to pester. “No no no,” Rainbow Dash started again as she began brushing herself off, “They’re going deeper into the mountains to look for Night Ember’s headquarters or something. They told me, to tell you, to stay here and look through the library just in case there’s something in Twilight’s books.” “Oh, ok,” Spike said, a little disappointed that he wasn’t going to see anyone else, “But you’re staying here with me, right Rainbow Dash?” “Ha!” Rainbow laughed, “No way! I’m heading back into the mountains for some adventure! You’ll be fine by yourself.” “But, I’ll be all alone” Spike sputtered. “No you won’t!” Applebloom offered, “We’ll help ya out! Won’t we Granny Smith?” “Darn tootin’! A’course we’ll help you, what else is family for? Er, friends of friends of family.” Granny Smith encouraged. Spike smiled up at the old pony. However, more ponies were coming up behind them to investigate the crash. “Rainbow, you gotta get outta here!” Applebloom warned. “You got it, with these wings I’ll be out of here in a dash before anypony even sees me!” Rainbow Dash boasted, then set herself up for flight. With her eyes squinted, her back arched, and her wings aloft, she let out a triumphant “Yah!” before trying to speed off into the blackening sky. Unfortunately, she only got about a foot high before taking a sharp arch downwards and crashing. “Gosh darnit!” Rainbow mumbled before hobbling off for a clunky running takeoff with everypony watching in an awkward confusion. “What the hay was that?” asked one of the ponies watching the ordeal. “Do you think that was a dragon?” “Are they attacking Ponyville now?!” “Nah,” calmed Granny Smith, “Looked to me like a big rainbow gull. Must’a gotten lost from its migration group. They aren’t too bright you know.” This explanation seemed to calm the crowd, who were quickly losing interest in the ‘rainbow gull’ and worries looked back to their endangered capital. “So Spike” Granny whispered back to the purple colt, “You think you can get us back to ‘yer libary now?” Spike nodded and the group trotted into town towards Twilight’s old home. "Er, Twilight?" "Yes Applejack?" "Not to doubt y'all or anything Twi, but do you sure you know where you're takin' us?" The group had been scampering up the side of Horseshoe Pass for a solid hour, and things were beginning to look a less and less like a legitimate trail, and more like they were simply lost. Behind them, they heard Pinkie blow up another signal bubble. "Don't worry, I'm 93% sure that this is the right path if we want to head into the smoky mountains" Twilight stated assuredly, "Well, at least 81% sure. Maybe closer to 79% sure." The friends then came out of the brush and found themselves at the edge of a desolate cliff- definitely a dead end. "Ok, at this point it may be closer to only 34% sure..." Twilight mumble. The group groaned. "Ug! This is all so frustrating! I've never tried to navigate without some sort of map before, this is hopeless" Twilight sighed. "Wait, does anypony else hear that?" Rarity shushed, the group went silent and they could all hear a low rumble in the sky that was coming straight towards them. "Look!" Pinkie Pie pointed to a streak of color in the sky, "I think that's Rainbow Dash!" The blur was speeding towards them, and it tried to land a few feet in front of them. However, instead of a clean landing Rainbow Dash only managed to bounce and skid until she landed at Pinkie Pie's feet, who let out an excited squee. "Rainbow!" Pinkie Pie gushed excitedly, giving her battered friend a big hug. "Did you get the message to Spike?" Twilight asked. "Ug, yeah. Spike managed to find Applejack's family and they're all at your house now, he seemed ok. Um, Pinkie Pie, do you think you could let go now?" Rainbow Dash sputtered out or her squeezed lungs. "Oops! Sure!" Pinkie Pie dropped her friend on the rock floor as Rainbow rubbed her head. "Thanks Pinkie..." Rainbow Dash mumbled. "No problem!" "Ok!" Twilight spat, trying to get her friends back on track, "So, we have Rainbow Dash and Spike's safe and sound at home, now we just have to keep moving! At this pace, we might even rescue the Princess before sundown! Or, what would be sundown anyways-" "What time is it? Does anypony have a clue?" Rainbow Dash asked. The ponies all looked into the sky, they could only see a small glimpse of the sun, still in its noon position, as the thick, inky smoke slithered across the Equestrian sky. “Goll-ey” Applejack murmured, lowering her hat, “I couldn’t even imagine what whatever’s left of Canterlot looks like now, they must have burned down the entire city to have created that much smoke.” However, Twilight was dubious. “I’m not so sure, that seems like too much smoke for just a city-wide fire, even a city as huge as Canterlot.” Twilight looked around, then scampered up a nearby tree to try and get a better view of her old home. She squinted between the mountain pass, and strained her eyes. “Then where’s all the smoke coming from?” Pinkie Pie asked. “Well, remember when that dragon started to hibernate in the mountain right outside of Ponyville? There was so much smoke that you could barely see the sky. It was redonkulous!” Pinkie reminisce. “Yeah, until we drove it out!” Rainbow Dash added excitedly. The group stayed silent for a moment, remembering the moment in light of the events of that morning. “So you think it was a good idea to kick ‘em out?” Applejack asked. “Um, yeah!” Rainbow Dash blurted, still not making the connection. The remaining friends stared thoughtfully as it dawned on her. “Well, Princess Celestia told us to, it was our duty!” Rainbow backpedaled as her friends stared at her, “Also, uh, oh! Also, it was blacking out the sky, remember? It was making the weather team’s job impossible and, you know, making the sky all smokey” “It was upsetting my animals” Fluttershy mumbled. “But that cave was it’s home, he was just trying to sleep” Twilight stated. “He wasn’t even violent ‘til Rainbow Dash kicked him” Applejack murmured. The group fell silent again. “What if Night Ember’s right? What if we were wrong about dragons and we’ve been hurting them all along?” Twilight asked, then looked at the group, “What if we’re wrong?” “Now Twilight” Rarity started “I can’t say that every interaction that ponies have made with dragons has been, sparkling, but taking over Canterlot, attacking ponies and brainwashing Princess Celestia certainly hasn’t been right. Sure, Night Ember may have had some valid points, but a more- diplomatic approach on her end would have been in order.” “I suppose-” Twilight mumbled, “-I just can’t help but think of all of the other dragons that have been feeling this way.” “Twi, I think you’re forgetting about somepony special that would disagree with you there” Applejack began. “Who?” Twilight asked “Spike a’course! Even though he’s been a dragon living in a pony world, he loves you, why he loves all of us so much that even when he had the choice to rule ‘long side with other dragons he told Night Ember and her band of misfits to munch mulch.” Applejack reminded. “Woah, not only that AJ” Rainbow Dash added, “Night Ember was about to blast his scales off and he still stuck by our side.” “Well, technically she did blast is scales off,” Pinkie Pie pondered, “But even after that he was still on our side!” “I’m sure that Spike’s not the only one, but I think we’re all very lucky to have him as a friend” Fluttershy said as she landed beside Twilight. The group nodded in agreement. “Well, are we going to sit here talking about nothing all day or are we going to kick some dragon butt?” Rainbow Dash asked impatiently. Everyone laughed, and the six friends continued scurrying up the side of the mountain. Prologue: Cinders of a Frozen VillagePrologue: Cinders of a Frozen Village The village jolted into silence. Ash floated down onto the blackened, icy, path; embers sputtered and quietly squealed against the melting snow. A mare walked past the last of the burning buildings, a few roofs slowly collapsing, stirring cinders into the freezing air. Breathing in deeply, she filled her lungs with smoke and let the weight of the night settle upon her. Terrified eyes stared back at her, no longer shivering from chill but from fear and disbelief. The mare walked closer to the group, leaving slushed footprints in the snow. Of course there was doubt, but the reward was undeniable. Another icy wind blew through the mountain, both strangling and feeding the flames behind her, whipping her mane in front of unblinking eyes; she now knew she was ready. It was time to return to Equestria.
Chapter One: The Warm Welcome“Twilight? Could you remind me again why we’re speeding off to Canterlot?” “Huh?” “I mean, I’m fine with any excuse to go to Canterlot especially during the springtime, but you weren’t very clear exactly why we were going. You just sort of mumbled something about the Princess.” Twilight looked up from her book at Rarity, who was now sitting beside her. The others were still sitting a few rows behind them laughing at something that Spike had said. “Look Rarity, to be honest I’m not really sure why we’re going either. I just got a letter yesterday from the Princess asking if we could be there today.” “Do you think that anything’s wrong?” “Probably not, she said it wasn’t too serious but there’s somepony that she’d really like me to meet.” “So, if it’s just you meeting somepony, then why are all of us coming?” “I don’t know, she just wrote that everypony should all come along too. Did you not want to come Rarity?” “Oh no no no Twilight! I just was curious about the occasion. Also I wanted to know which hat to wear once we arrive at the train station; you know how important it is to make the proper entrance based on the situation.” Rarity pulled out two marvelous hats that she had designed herself, and Twilight laughed. “Well, since we are meeting some very important pony, I’d go with the blue one.” “The blue one...” “I mean, uh, the silver one?” “Ah, that’s just what I was thinking! Thanks for your help Twilight dear.” With that, Rarity put on the silver hat, packed the blue one away, then trotted to the back of the train to join the others. As she watched her friend leave, Twilight’s smile faded into a confused scowl. It wasn’t like the Princess to be so vague; who could this pony be that her and her friends were supposed meet? Or was it even a pony at all? She dug her head back into her book, the latest issue of the Important Ponies Journal. There were scientists, celebrities, even her and her friends, but Twilight couldn’t figure out which one, if any of them, they were going to meet. In a wave of frustration she slammed her head into the book. After an hour, the seven friends finally reached Canterlot station. The streets were bustling with all types of ponies, and her friends were slowly making their way out of the train, taking in the sights. “Ooh!” Pinkie Pie squealed, “The ice cream cafe has double-decker popsicles!” “Forget the popsicles Pinkie” Rainbow Dash interrupted, eyes growing wide at a poster hanging by the train station door, “The Wonderbolts are having a show today at Canterlot Coliseum! It says that Spitfire’s going to do her famous Fireball Fly-by!” “Oh but would you just look at the Main Square, the Canterlot Spring fashions are simply to die for! Oh that classical petticoat with fitted bodice is simply chic!” Rarity swooned, “And coupled with that hat..” “Speaking of Springtime, the city is so pretty this time of year; with the Redbud trees in bloom, and all the birdies coming back” Fluttershy added, “Just seeing it all makes me want to sing!” “Oh Tatarus!” Twilight cursed, looking at the Canterlot clock tower, “I’m sorry everypony, no time to enjoy the scenery. We’re already late to the meeting with the Princess! Maybe if we hurry Celestia won’t be too angry, c’mon!” With that, the group quickly galloped up the hill to the Canterlot Castle. “Twilight, I’m so glad you and your friends could make it” Princess Celestia welcomed warmly as the seven stumbled into the great hall. “Thank... you... Princess,” Twilight panted, “Sorry... we’re... so.. late...” “Never fret Twilight Sparkle, didn’t I tell you that this wasn’t urgent?” the Princess asked. Twilight shook her head, while her other friends glared at her. Celestia only laughed. “I’ll let you all catch your breath while I get our other guest, she’s just waiting in the throne room.” Twilight bowed, still panting, as the Celestia left for the other room. After the others caught their breath, Rainbow Dash spoke up. “So, who exactly are we meeting again? Twilight, you hardly said anything before we left!” “I hardly knew anything before we left. I just got a vague letter from the Princess asking if all of us could come to the Castle as soon as we could.” “I wonder what this mystery guest could want with all of us” Spike wondered aloud. “Do y’all think the kingdom’s ok?” Applejack asked, “Should we panic?” Fluttershy shuttered, “No, no now’s no time to panic. Celestia would have said if something was wrong. She even said that it wasn’t too important if we couldn’t make it today.” Twilight said, still pondering the possibilities. “I wonder if we’re meeting royalty. Maybe they're an eligible young stallion” Rarity sighed dreamily. “Ooo! Or what if we’re throwing a super duper fun party again!” Pinkie Pie offered, “Maybe one of the guards is having a birthday and the princess wanted us to wish him a happy birthday! Or what if-” Suddenly, they heard a loud creaking from the massive hallway doors slowly opening. "You can come in now girls" Princess Celestia beckoned. The seven friends entered slowly, walking towards the Princess who stood in front of the two thrones with one wing up, shrouding somepony behind it. “May I present the brilliant and talented Night Ember, one of my other top students” Celestia announced, letting down her wing. Behind it was a well groomed unicorn that was about the others’ age. She had a dark navy coat, a ghostly-light teal mane, and fiery orange eyes. “Twilight Sparkle?!” the mare asked excitedly, running towards Twilight. Twilight was taken aback-- she had no clue who this other pony was. Once this strange new pony was in front of her, Night Ember slowed and bent to curtsy looking directly into Twilight’s eyes with a soft smirk. “Oh Twilight, I’ve heard so much about you and your friends. I can’t believe you’ve saved all of Equestria so many times, it’s unbelievable! First Nightmare Moon, then Discord, I just can’t even take it all in right now!” “Well, um, I’m honored! But I’m so sorry, I can’t say I’ve heard the Princess mention you before...” “Part of that is my fault. Even though Night Ember is amazingly talented in the field of magic, she’s hidden up in the Smoky Mountains that I can sometimes forget about her out there,” Princess Celestia joked as she walked up to the group, “She has been asking for years now about all the adventures you and your friends have had. I’ve offered to let you two meet for years but she’s always been a bit too shy. When I received a letter from her that she wished to meet you and your friends, I thought it was about time that you all got together”. Night Ember bowed and shook hooves with Twilight and each of her friends one by one, ending with a hoof shake and a wink with a confused Spike. “I’m so glad that we can finally meet! How far along are you with your studies Night Ember?” Twilight politely asked. “Well, of course I’m not as good as you, oh great Twilight Sparkle, I can only do a couple of things-” “Oh don’t be so modest Night! She might not study such a wide array of skills as you Twilight, but she’s made amazing discoveries in both magic and information concerning an array of mythical creatures.” “Specifically, dragons” Night Ember said proudly as she showed off her cutie mark: it was a wild orange flame in the shape of a dragon's head. “Woah! That is too cool!” Rainbow Dash gushed. “Dragons? You mean like me?” Spike asked. Night Ember nodded happily. “Exactly like you Spike. I’ve been fascinated with them ever since I opened my egg on the test day.” “Wait, you opened your egg too?” Twilight asked. Twilight had never known another student who had opened a dragon egg; the original purpose of the dragon egg was to see how well that unicorn could react under pressure, and to her knowledge Twilight had been the only pony who had actually succeeded in hatching it. “So, does that mean that you have a dragon too?” Spike asked excitedly, and Night Ember nodded. “Of course! I actually wanted to wait to show you him, but, well, since you asked--Wasp! Wasp could you please come in here to meet our new friends?” Night Ember called out. After a short pause, a pony-sized black dragon with tall, pointed yellow scales appeared in the doorway; Twilight could see Fluttershy backing up behind Applejack as he crept closer. His eyes were squashed in a suspicious glare as he skulked into the room “Everypony, meet my good friend and partner: Wasp” Night introduced. The dragon nodded in welcome, but stayed by Night Ember’s side. “Well, uh, he sure is a big guy isn’t he?” Twilight spit out awkwardly, attempting to break the silence. “Yes, his species is known to grow quite quickly, but I’m afraid that he’s not going to get too much larger than a couple of hundred hooves high.” “A couple hundred hooves? That doesn’t sound too little to me” Rarity accidentally blurted out. “Oh, but you really don’t have to worry about him. He’s a dragon of few words but he has a real golden heart once you get to know him.” “Well,” Fluttershy nervously started, “It’s very nice to meet you Wasp.” She slowly approached the dragon and put out a hoof in welcome. Wasp seemed surprised, but took her hoof and warmly shook it. "I'm so happy that you all are becoming such good friends" Princess Celestia smiled, "I've prepared a small lunch in the dining room if you all have the time." "That sounds lovely Princess, thank you for your hospitality" Rarity thanked as she curtsied. The rest of the friends began following Celestia out the door when Night called out nervously. "Wait! Celestia! I mean, Princess. Princess Celestia. M’am. Do we have to go to the dining hall? Couldn't we, just stay here?" The rest of the group confusedly looked back at the pony and her dragon. "Do you have to get back home Night Ember?" the princess asked. "Um, no, it's just that-" Night Ember blathered, "Celestia, could I ask an odd request? Do you think we could eat in here? In the throne room? It's just I love admiring the, oh you know, the stained glass, and the- drapes?" The ponies blinked back at Night. "Well, of course we could Night Ember, why not? I see you so little that a little deviation from the normal would be fun. Do you girls mind?" the Princess asked the other ponies who all shook their heads happily in agreement; all except for Rarity, who was only slightly cross that she was snuffed out of the chance for a royal lunch. Within minutes, a table was brought into the throne room, the lunch was served, and the ten sat down. "Hey Rainbow? Anything that you, uh, are findin' a bit odd about this Night Ember gal?" Applejack whispered to Rainbow Dash once the group began eating. "No, what are you talking about?" "I dunno, there's just something about that pony that just rubs me the wrong way. I trust her about as far as I could throw her." "What? Why? She's awesome! She hangs out with dragons all day in the Smokey Mountains, what could be cooler than that? Also I bet you could throw her pretty far, just sayin'." "Very funny Rainbow, but- well shoot I don’t know. Haven't you noticed anything weird about her? It's like she's hiding somethin', and I don't like it." "Jeez AJ, since when were you so suspicious?" "I'm serious! She looks just like Applebloom before I found out she was hiding knives that her and her friends were gonna juggle to try an' get their Cutie Marks. Not to mention that dragon of her’s looks about as cheerful as a bruised bear" "You're just paranoid, I’m sure he’s just sick of hanging out with ponies. Also, what would Night Ember be hiding? Maybe she's just-- really really happy." "Also listen how she talks to everypony else, especially Twi and the princess. She's all sarcastic, like she thinks she's better than everypony else here." "She talks with a poisonous air" Rarity whispered in. "What? So you think she's bad news too?" Rainbow Dash asked. "Hmm? Oh no no no, Night Ember seems delightful, but I do agree she talks as though she's up to something; it must come with hanging out with dreadful serpents all day. Anyways nobody with such good style could be bad news, I absolutely adore her mane." "What are you guys talking about?" Fluttershy sheepishly whispered. "Applejack thinks Night Ember is evil" Rainbow Dash explained. "What?! No!" Applejack yelled under her breath, "Ah'm sure she's a fine pony-- just a might suspicious is all" "Why do you think she's suspicious? She seems like a lovely unicorn" Fluttershy defended. "She breathes poison air or something-" Rainbow Dash mumbled, getting bored of the conversation and going back to her lunch. "What?" Fluttershy asked, horrified as Applejack simply slammed her hoof against her face in exasperation at Rainbow's failure to communicate. "No dear, the air is fine I was just saying-" Rarity began. "Uh, guys?" Spike awkwardly whispered, trying to get the girls’ attention. “I had just said ‘poisonous air’, not air like breathing. I swear you’re all worse than Sweetie Belle-” Rarity grumbled. “Guys?” Spike whispered again, elbowing Applejack. "Hey everypony, can I whisper with you guys too?" Pinkie Pie asked in a hush excitement. "Guys-- Twilight was hoping that you'd share your thoughts with the rest of the table" Spike hinted as he motioned to the head of the table, where Wasp, Night Ember, Celestia all were silently staring at them while Twilight was glaring disappointedly. The four chatting ponies scooted back apart and went back to their meal. “So, Night Ember,” Twilight began, hoping to distract from that little incident, “I’d love to hear all about your research. I’ve had a lot of questions about Spike, and no book in my library seems to have any answers. How did you even get started in this kind of study?” “Well, I had the same questions about dragons that you probably do, however I had grown so close to Wasp that I just couldn’t wait to find out more. I had asked Princess Celestia if I could go to the Smoky Mountains to research them further alongside wild dragons. I’ve actually been able to get very close with many dragons of all types and ages, and I’ve spent so much time with them the locals have actually come to call me ‘Night of the dragons’. It’s a cute name actually.” "Ah" Pinkie Pie sighed with understanding, "Sometimes when I spend too long with the cream-filled sponge cakes Mr. Cake starts referring to me as ‘Pinkie if the Twinkies'” At this remark Twilight mirrored Applejack's previous face-hoof. Night Ember leaned behind the other ponies to talk to Spike. "Don't worry" she assured him, "It'll all be over soon." When Night went back to her lunch Spike only sat looking at her confusedly. “Well ladies” Princess Celestia began as the servent ponies were beginning to take away their plates, “I’m so pleased that we’ve all been able to meet each other after so long, there is truly nothing more special than meeting new friends. If I may, I like to propose-” Suddenly, a monstrous tremble hit the castle. The group tensed as the force moved through the building with an unnatural groan. “Now what in the name of buckin’ broncos is that?” Applejack hollered a few seconds after the mysterious tremor had passed. Everypony looked at each other, hoping somepony else had the answer, but even the Princess seemed to be taken off guard. The servent ponies quickly trotted out of the throne room, and Twilight saw a dubious grin pass over Night Embers face. Just then, one of Celestia’s royal guards frantically ran into the hall. “Princess, a hoarde has just been spotted coming straight for the castle! We don’t have much time!” The guard urged through his panting. “A hoarde of what?” Celestia asked nervously. Without warning, a monstrous clawed hand broke through the wall, snatching the Princess. The room erupted in shrieks of terror and panic as nopony knew what to do. Dragons of all sizes burst into the hall, breaking through walls and stained glass windows, each trying to catch Twilight and her friends. Night Ember’s horn lit up, then fired a bright beam directly at Celestia. The beam hit the Princess and the intense magic enveloped her, swirling and changing around her body. Most of Twilight's friends were quickly caught, aside from Spike and Rainbow Dash, but Night Ember stood calmly in the center of the room, a malicious and cheesy smile spreading across her face. “What have you done to the Princess you sick, twisted traitor!” Rainbow Dash yelled as she dodged another dragon’s attack. She then turned and flew straight towards Night Ember, ready to attack; but the unicorn was ready too. Right before Rainbow Dash hit, Night Ember was engulfed in white flames, burning the pegasus but leaving Night Ember unscathed and laughing maniacally. A black dragon picked up Rainbow Dash's limp body and secured her neck in a choke hold. Still aflame, Night Ember shot another beam at Twilight and Rarity as the last of the free ponies were captured and Spike was being held by Wasp. “What have you done?!” Twilight sobbed, feeling a sharp pain in her horn, “Why are you doing this? What is going on?” “Justice.” Night Ember barked brazenly, “Though nothing in comparison of what you and your kind have done to mine.” The flame around her suddenly vanished, and after another spell was cast Night Ember grew two navy dragon wings. She stood in triumph, obviously proud with her alicorn form. "Your kind?” Applejack asked, “Well what kind are ya then? Dragon? No good rebel?” “Though perhaps not by birth, I’d believe I am a dragon trapped in a feeble pony body. Our mighty kind has been oppressed and underestimated for far too long. Somepony has to right these atrocities,” Night Ember announced garishly as she slowly paced across the hall, her now reptilian tongue flipping in and out, “Ponykind disgusts me in the way they use these noble, strong and smart creatures, even though they possess the power and the knowledge to take over all of Equestria. All they needed was a little initiative and the leadership to get it accomplished." “What do you mean, ‘oppressed’? Ponies have hardly interacted at all with dragons, and even if we have it’s been running away!” Twilight yelled angrily, “Dragons aren’t threatened or-” “Oh be silent you clod. Not only do ponies mistreat us, but they’re completely ignorant that they’re doing so!” Night Ember spat, “Just to start, Celestia’s school used their children as tests for young unicorns that have no clue what they’re doing in that idiotic ‘dragon-egg test’. Do you know how many mother dragons have lost their young because of that?” There was a long pause. “Well that’s awful, but-” Pinkie Pie started “But that’s just the beginning!” Night Ember growled, “Every time within the last two thousand years that a Dragon has tried to nest in Equestria, they’ve been either killed or run off within the first week of their stay. You clowns were even apart of this! When a peaceful dragon tried to nest in an uninhabited mountain just to sleep, you all guilted him right out of there the same day, forcing him to abandoned his nest and all his jewels inside. Dragons have a right to nest wherever they please, especially if they intend to be peaceful. The real problems is you ponies just hate dragons without even giving them a chance!” Night Ember stomped her hoof defiently. “But we love dragons!” Fluttershy offered, “Sure, I might be scared of them most of the time, but I really do love them. Our good friend Spike is a dragon and we all just love him to death!” “Ha! Now there is a good laugh. Of all the dragons ponies have abused, you and your friends towards Spike have been the nastiest example.” “What?!” Twilight blurted out, “But we love him with all our hearts! Tell her Spike!” “Yes.” Night Ember started sarcastically, her reptilian tongue flicking, “Tell me Spike about how wonderful and loving your friends have been to you. Like how Twilight’s never stopped bossing you around since day one?” “Wait a minute!” Spike began, “That’s-” “Or how about the times that she’s ‘accidentally’ abused you in her waves of panic and stress? Knocking you with books or accidentally slamming you with the door?” “Well, uh, that’s-” “Or how about the time they forced you to revert back into a baby dragon after you’d grown full size?” “But, uh, that’s because-” “Or when you had finally decided to be free and live with your own kind: they had only let you go with the intent of stealing you back for their own selfish-selfishness, then botched your chance of ever bonding with the other dragons by interrupting you, then stealing you away?” “Well, well I, uh, um...” Spike floundered to quickly come up with an answer. “Be perfectly honest with me Spike. Do you ever miss those other dragons? Have you ever wanted to be a part of their group again, even for a moment?” Night Ember demanded, standing with her face right next to Spike’s. “Sometimes...” Spike admitted. “The only reason that Spike hasn’t run away to be happy with his own kind is because of your so-called love.” Night Ember guilted spitefully, turning towards the others. “No!” Spike stated. “Hmm?” Night Ember hummed curiously, but still confident. “No! The reason that I stay with them and don’t run away is because I love them too!” he announced to Night Ember valiantly. Night Ember stuttered, obviously not expecting this, then narrowed her eyes lowered herself down until she was at eye level with Spike. “You only think it’s love because you haven’t had the chance to know anything else.” Night Ember huffed then flew up to a group of waiting dragons to bark out orders. They nodded faithfully then flew down the hallway, with a few stopping to smash out the remaining windows. Twilight and her friends could yelling from the royal guards, then the clank of the gigantic metal door leading into the forgotten dungeons. “So what have you done to me and to Twilight?” Rarity demanded “And what have you done to the Princess?” Rainbow Dash coughed, now conscious and fighting against the dragons holding her. “Oh, you have no idea of the things that I'm going to do. You don't even understand the level of magic that I'm capable of! Starting with you two, I have temporarily infected your horns making it impossible to practice any magic while I’m here; we wouldn’t want any funny business before the grand finale, hmm?” Night Ember then let out a dramatic laugh. "Sure seems like y'all just don't want anypony interruptin' your hammy ramblings..." Applejack mumbled. “So what are you going to do?” Pinkie Pie questioned, “It had better not have anything to do with bananas or gosh darnit missy you’ll be sorry!” Night Ember simply rolled her eyes at the group. “Oh you six overblown 'heroes' have no clue of what I have ahead, it’s absolutely brilliant! Me and my hoard have easily overtaken Canterlot, and will have no problem controlling the rest of Equestria”, Night Ember cackled, “Your Princess is under my control, and since I’ve diffused you and your friends there’s nothing that could possibly stop me now!” “It’s no use Night Ember. I think I’ve seen the spell you’ve used before, and it won’t last forever. You may be powerful, but you’re no match for me-” Twilight started, but then was interrupted but another confident laugh from Ember. “Oh Twilight Sparkle, Princess Celestia’s top student, so talented in so many areas," Night Ember parroted sarcastically, "Well you’ve made the same mistake that Celestia had made a thousand years ago: just because you can do a lot of things well doesn’t mean you should underestimate another pony who can do one thing unfathomably well. I’ve invented hundreds of dragon spells that only I know, and am the only unicorn powerful enough to accomplish them. Accept your fate, Twilight Sparkle, you’re nothing compared to me and my allies. Do you even know what I’ve done to Celestia? Do you even know what I’m about to to do you?” Twilight stuttered, she didn’t know what had happened to the princess; a large dragon had been covering her with their wing since Night Ember had cast her spell. Twilight was worried for all of their lives, they were at Ember's mercy. Wouldn’t she have already killed them or dragged them away? What if they were only here to witness her power trip? “I don’t know what you have planned Night Ember” Twilight began courageously, “But no matter what you do, just know that you will be defeated. Maybe by us, maybe by Celestia, or maybe-” “Oh but you know what the best twist is? Celestia is completely on my side!” “What?!” the six ponies screamed at once. “Oh yes! Firefly, move your wing and show these ponies their princess!” Night Ember called to the with their wing over Celestia. The dragon nodded, and all that was underneath was a white, pearly egg. Twilight and her friends gasped nearly in tandem. “Well, maybe not right now, but once a full day has passed the spell will be complete and she will be reborn as a baby dragon, having no memory of you or anypony else. All she’ll know is that I’m her mother--baby dragons are extremely loyal to their mothers and believe everything they say. And even after she’s grown to a point where she can think for herself, who is she going to side with--her pony oppressors, or her loving dragon family? It’s absolutely brilliant and there’s nothing that you or anypony else can do to stop it!” Night Ember smiled again proudly, savoring every moment of her brilliantly executed victory. Twilight looked at Ember in horror; she had never heard of any spell that could do this before, Night Ember was more powerful than she could have imagined. Twilight took in a deep breath, this was no time to panic, her and her friends had been through worse and she’ll be darned if she'd give up already. “You may think you’ve won Night Ember, but you haven’t. You didn't let me finish before: it’s true that you are more powerful than me, but you’re nothing compared to me, and my friends. Even if you try and lock us away forever, the power of friendship is stronger than any chains, dragon or dungeon!” Twilight announced triumphantly. “Yeah!” Rainbow Dash yelled, “And when we do we’re going to banish you and your dirty dragon friends back where they came!” “You stupid-- ponies!” Night screeched, diving towards Rainbow Dash with hate filling her eyes from the insult of her kind, “Don’t you realize I could effortlessly do the same to you that I did to the Princess?” “So, why don’t you?” Rainbow Dash challenged, not unlocking her eyes from Night's. Both ponies breathed heavily in the emotion of the situation. A wicked grin spread across Night Ember’s face as she carefully landed. “Why that would be too easy for you!” She spat, still cackling ever more hammily, “I have something much better planned. You can’t just start over, you must watch helplessly as your kingdom is destroyed and there’s nothing you can do about it.” “How are you going to do that?” Fluttershy asked fearfully. “I've planned this all out perfectly! You know the old saying, don’t judge a pony ‘till you’ve trot a mile in their horseshoes?” Night asked while the other ponies suspiciously nodded, “Well I thought the best twist would be to turn you each into a different dragon, but given your ages you’ll be stuck as a baby for another hundred years!” “What?!” Rarity screamed, horrified, “You wouldn’t dare!” Rainbow Dash challenged, “There are different types of dragons?” Pinkie Pie asked, confused. “Yes you waste of- UHG!” Night Ember, frustrated at the ignorance of her prisoners, “I mean- yes. If any ponies actually bothered to take interest in these magnificent creatures they would know that there are actually seventeen different types of dragons. My favorite part is that even if you somehow manage to collect the elements of harmony, they are only in tune with the rhythms of friendship within ponies, not dragons! Though this is an infuriating form of speciesism, it does work for my poetic justice. Now who should I start with? This is going to be tough. Should I begin with Celestia’s number one student? No I think I’ll save you for last...” “How about you start with my back hoof in your face?” Rainbow Dash challenged. “Ah, yes. The loud rainbow one. I hear you’re the fastest flyer in Equestria, it’d be a shame to lose that. Your new form is-- the Lightning dragon! Fast and fierce, but not too bright, like you.” Night Ember’s horn began to glow, and a spark of lightning erupted from it and shot towards Rainbow Dash. All that could be heard was the reverberation of the sheer power and the faint yell from Dash. After the smoke cleared, in Rainbow’s place was a small, sleek blue and rainbow baby dragon. Everypony gasped at the sight of their friend. “What did you do to her?” Twilight demanded “Holy fangs and scales, were you even listening before?" Night Ember yelled, frustrated again with her prisoners, "I turned your friend into a Lightning dragon, just like I said two seconds ago. TWO SECONDS AGO!Don’t worry, she still has her memories and personality, just a little different look. It’s a much simpler spell than the one I performed on Celestia, not a complete re-boot, but it still gets the desired effect...” “Oh when I get my claws on you-” The rainbow dragon snarled. The other ponies murmured in anxious anticipation for what was about to come. Spike was still being held on the sidelines by Wasp, and he had no clue what to do. Even if he could escape from this older dragon, was there anything he could do? “Now onto somepony else, hmm who should I pick? How about we go with the other pegasus, little Fluttershy. So small and bashful, you look to me like-- a Pixy dragon!” Another lightning bolt shot out from Night Ember’s horn at Fluttershy, and again the smoke cleared to reveal Night’s work: a tiny yellow and pink dragon with buzzing wings. “Oh my...” Fluttershy murmured, perplexed at her new claws and scales. However, when she looked up and realized that she was only about as big as a pony’s ear, she eeped and hid in the arms of her now confused captor. Night Ember only chuckled, becoming quite proud of her new power. “Now, who’s next?” Night Ember asked aloud. “Ooo! Do me!” Pinkie excitedly volunteered, “Do me next! Me me meee!” Night Ember rolled her eyes at the pink earth pony. “Fine, lets get the annoying one out of the way next. Hmm, excitable and stupid, how about the Bubble dragon? That seems about right-” And with that, Night Ember fired another beam directly at Pinkie Pie. After the spell was cast, her friends could see that she was now a small, chubby baby dragon with a large snout and rounded scales. After blinking her large, blue eyes a few times and looking at her new hands and feet, Pinkie only giggled at Night’s handywork. “Shut up!” Night Ember yelled, beginning to weaken after all of these powerful spells, “Don’t you realize that that spell has sealed your defeat? Do you dare laugh at the form of this mighty beast?” She was only met by Pinkie’s mumbled giggles. “Whatever. Now, where’s that other earth pony, Applejack? Ah, there you are. You’re the strong one aren’t you? Well then, the Clobber dragon would fit you well.” Night Ember fired another spell at AppleJack. When her friends could see her again, Applejack was a lot bigger than the other baby dragons, but still a bit smaller than a pony. Her bright green eyes glared at Night Ember as she picked up her hat. “So that’s a pretty great parlor trick ya’ got there, ah hope yer at least making your new friends proud causin’ all this chaos...” Applejack grumbled through her fangs. “Oh I can assure you my friends will be very happy by the time this plan is through. Now, onto sweet little Rarity. Sure think you’re something special don’t you sweetheart?” “Well I can tell you I’d rather be a dragon than a pony like you any day!” Rarity spat. “Well, uh, I’d rather be a great leader than a sheep like you any day!” Night spat back, “Anyways, I thought you’d appreciate being the Jade dragon for it’s beauty and because it’s so rare, or, whatever.” Night Ember transformed her into a thin, long, pearly dragon with amethyst crest scales. “Well, at the very least I can admire your choice in style, for a traitorous buffoon.” Rarity mumbled. Night Ember, panting and smiling, becoming more and more pleased in her power over Twilight’s friends even though the powerful spells were clearly wearing her out. “Oh, and last, but very least, we have the miraculous Twilight Sparkle: Celestia’s number one student. I thought it’d be hilarious if you’d be the same species as your servant Spike. Does that sound good? Maybe then you could empathize with your prisoner a bit more.” Night Ember said flatly. “Spike was never my- Ahh!” Twilight started before Night’s spell hit. The bright magic crackled and reverberated around her body. When Twilight was finally revealed, she looked nearly identical to Spike; the only difference between them was their color and Twilight’s more feminine eyes. Night Ember sat down then cackled again, impressed though exhausted with her own handiwork and assured victory. “Now’s your chance to take your revenge Spike” Night called to the baby dragon, “Now’s your chance to tell Twilight just how you felt about being bossed around and trapped for all these years. Go ahead, she has nothing over you now!” “No.” Spike said simply; this surprised Night Ember. “You, you don’t have to lie anymore Spike! Show her what a dragon can really do to somepony who’s wronged them!” Night said as she struggled to stand again. “I’d never do that!” Spike called out again, “Sure, sometimes I might have leaving, and can sometimes get frustrated when she’s busy and doesn’t think about my feelings, but Twilight’s my friend! She’s risked her life to save me, and always puts me first in the end over what she wants. I’m sure that if I’d really wanted to leave, she would say yes if she knew that that’s what would make me happy, but I’d never leave her because she needs me and I need her! Twilight and her friends are the kindest, most loving creatures that I’ve ever met, and you’ve got a lot of nerve putting these spells on them and saying that they don’t care! Do you know what would make me happy Night Ember? If you would put my friends back to normal and leave us and Equestria in peace!” There was a long silence as Night Ember stared down at Spike. “You really feel that way?” Night Ember asked “With all my heart” Spike answered. Night Ember glared down at the dragon. “You’ve been brainwashed by them!” “I haven’t!” “You’d side with your captors and oppressors?!” “They aren’t captors, they love me!” “You should be ashamed to call yourself a dragon, you’re more a pony than any-” Night started, then grew another evil smile across her face. “You don’t deserve to wear those scales” Night hissed. She struggled, charging another powerful spell and shot it straight at Spike “Spike nooo!” Twilight cried, scared for her friend, “What twisted morals do you think you have, hurting 'your own kind' just because he disagreed with you?” “He’s not my kind” Night chuckled, and as the smoke cleared a young, purple colt was laying on the floor by Wasp and Night’s feet. Author's Note fixed the formatting issues!
Chapter Two: Hatching a PlanTwilight’s friends stared stunned at Spike. After a minute of silence, he coughed and slowly tried to stand. “What did you- Aah!” He cried, looking at his hooves. Instead of his small dragon body, he was now a young earth pony: with a purple coat and spiky green hair. As he tried to stand on two legs, he fumbled over face first into the ground. “Spike! Are you ok?” Twilight called, fighting her dragon guard to run to him. “Let her go, she’s no threat to us anymore” Night Ember called to the guard, and the larger dragon dropped Twilight. She ran over to him, and looked in his giant pony eyes. “I’m fine Twilight. Are you guys ok?” Spike asked, rubbing his sore head “Well that was a real nice show of power,” Rarity huffed, “Now that you’ve taken away our identities, crippled the Princess, destroyed the Castle and absolutely ruined my new hat, what were you thinking of next? Oh do please say it’s not the dungeon.” “No, it’s not the dungeon Rarity. Now that what little power you all had are gone, I have no more need to worry about you saps; you can go back to Ponyville or wherever mud hole you like. Now that you’re dragons you can’t do magic, you can’t use the elements of harmony and you have no more allies. Heck, after a few hundred years I might turn you back into ponies, but it will be far too late to save your precious pony Princess. Guards- let them go.” And with that, the dragons that were holding the once-pony friends dropped them harshly onto the marble floor. While most of them stumbled on their two legs and tried to regain their bearings, Rainbow Dash took to the air and dive-bombed strait towards Night Ember. Unimpressed, Night extended one wing before Rainbow Dash hit, knocking her onto the rug. “I suggest you six appreciate my great mercy and leave my castle before I change my mind” Night Ember said dryly as she exhaustively slumped to the floor. “That’s a good idea girls, lets go” Applejack directed "Lets leave this old ham with her new friends." The six dragons and Spike slowly made their way out of the hall and out of the castle. There was an uncomfortable silence as they trodded through the dragon infested halls. However, the strange silence was broken once they opened the castle's doors onto Canterlot where they were met with a great tumult. Outside Canterlot Castle was sheer panic: nopony outside knew what to do and they could only scream and run in terror of their new oppressors. The group snuck to the outside of an abandoned cafe to plan. The afternoon sky began filling with harsh black smoke. “Ok everypony, er, everydragon: we need to stop Night Ember and get the elements of harmony before tomorrow at noon or Celestia’s going to be gone forever” Twilight instructed. “But we can’t use the Elements while we’re dragons, remember? The only one here that could use ‘em is Spike and I doubt he could be all six” Applejack reminded. Twilight stared thoughtfully into space. “Well then, we’ll just have to figure out a way to turn back into ponies. There could be something like this in one of my books back home, we might as well start there!” Twilight proposed. “How are we supposed to get home Twilight? This place is pure Chaos!” Rainbow Dash whined. “Ooo! It looks like the trains are still running!” Pinkie exclaimed, pointing at the nearby station that was boarding. “Uh-oh, it looks like this is the last train to ponyville though and it’s leavin’ soon! We better get goin’!” Applejack urged. “Now wait just one second Applejack, how are we supposed to get on the train like this?” Rarity asked, “I doubt they’ll let six dragons on board during a dragon takeover.” “It’s a drago-pocalypse! It’s arma-dragon!” Pinkie Pie screamed excitedly. Her friends gave her a disappointed look. “Well, maybe we could hide in some luggage and get on the train that way” Rarity suggested, “There’s a bunch of bags in the lost and found that have been there for ages, I'm sure nopony would mind if we borrowed them.” “Good idea Rarity,” Twilight encouraged, “But how are we going to get the bags onto the train? They only take bags from passengers, and I doubt any of us are going to fool the conductor.” “Final emergency train to Ponyville now boarding! This train is leaving the station in five minutes!” The conductor called out. The six friends racked their brain, desperately trying to think of a plan. “Wait a second, duh!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed, “We don’t need to trick the conductor, we have Spike!” “Wait, what?!” Spike asked nervously “Of course! Rainbow Dash, you’re a genious! Spike, would you be ok taking us all on board?” “I- I don’t know. I’ve never been a pony before, I have no clue how I’m supposed to act!” “Oh Spikey Wikey, it’s much easier than you’re making it out to be; just be yourself dear” Rarity encouraged. “Now just hold yer hay everypony: how are we supposed to get Spike on that train? Even though it’s an emergency the conductor’s still requirin’ tickets,” Applejack said, “and the booth’s so busy that we’ll never buy a new one in time, I don’t think any of us even have any money no more.” “Drat, I lost my ticket and my money at some point when Night Ember took over. Think girls, maybe if-” Twilight started “Ooo wait! I think I still have my ticket!” Pinkie Pie offered “You do? How’d you manage to hang onto that?” Rainbow Dash asked “I always keep super-duper important stuff in my hair so I don’t lose it” Pinkie Pie giggled, reaching into the mess of scales on top of her head. After a bit of digging, she proudly pulled out a crumpled round-trip train ticket. “Ta-da!” She exclaimed excitedly. “Perfect!” Twilight affirmed, “Alright girls, lets get to the lost and found, and get on that train!” “Last call for boarding! Last call for boarding the emergency train to Ponyville!” The conductor called out. “Wait! Hold that train!” Spike called out, dragging three large bags behind him. “You’re just in time son, here, let me get those bags for you” The conductor offered, “These’ll have to go in the back, is that alright with you?” “Uh, is there any way I could have them beside my seat?” Spike asked hopefully. “Sorry, this train is packed and we gotta go. You’ve got a ticket?” “Oh, uh, why yes I do!” Spike bumbled, trying to pull out his ticket with his hooves. Once he got it, he quickly lost his grip and started juggling it around, desperately trying to manage his new hands and get the ticket to the conductor. “Woah son, don’t worry I got it,” The conductor said supportively and grabbed the ticket. However, once he got a good look at it he stared questioningly up at Spike. “Uh, son? Is this your ticket?” The conductor asked. “Yes?” Spike answered nervously. “So you’re trying to tell me that you are Pinkamena Diane Pie?” The conductor suspiciously looked over Spike. “Well, uh, why yes?” Spike stuttered back nervously. The conductor didn’t break his disapproving stare over Spike. Suddenly, they heard another conductor’s voice from inside the train. “Smokey! What are you doing out there, this train has to get out of here stat! A couple more dragons were seen approaching the mountain pass and we gotta get over it before the whole railroad’s in pieces!” the other pony called. The conductor sighed and pulled Spike into the train just before it began moving. “Ok son, if it wasn’t an emergency we’d have a few questions for you back at the train station, but next time buy your own ticket and don’t use your sister’s old round-trip one, ok?” the conductor lectured as he closed the train door. “Oh! Yes sir, of course sir” Spike stammered, “Um, you don’t suppose my luggage got on in time do you? I had some really important stuff in there-” “Oh don’t worry, I’m positive it all got on board. Now you better get to a seat, this area’s for conductors and engineers only.” The conductor ushered Spike to the passenger area, and it was absolutely packed with ponies. Spike managed to find an empty seat in the corner, and he sat down to try and collect his thoughts. “Ug, Rarity stop pushing!” “Well Rainbow Dash your wing is right in my face!” “Rarity you’re taking up the entire suitcase, just move over!” “Everyone, quiet down! There could still be a worker in this area. And Rarity seriously stop pushing us!” Twilight hushed. “This is ridiculous, did anypony else’s bag even make it on the train? Are we even on the train?” Rainbow Dash whined, “Hey! Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy and Applejack, you guys there!?” “Shhh! Rainbow how hard is it to keep quiet? If anypony finds out we’re here, we’re toast! So we have to stay silent!” Twilight scolded. “We’re here!” Pinkie Pie yelled from a few bags away, “And I think I heard Applejack not too far away!” “Pinkie quiet!” Twilight shushed. “Well this plan is just turning out beautifully” Rarity sighed sarcastically, “Shushing each other in the dark is going to do no good, we’ve got to get a look outside to see if there’s any train workers out there.” “Can anypony sink their claws into the bag to rip open a hole or something?” Rainbow Dash asked, “I would but Rarity’s sitting on one arm and the other one’s asleep.” “Here, let me try” Twilight offered. She took one finger and carefully poked a small hole into the bag. She spied into it, looking for any workers outside. “Looks like the coast is clear, but we probably would have been thrown out already anyways if there was anypony within earshot” Twilight reported. “Does that mean that we can get out of here?” Rainbow Dash asked, “I can’t take any more of this stupid bag.” “Too risky. Just because nopony’s here now doesn’t mean we’re going to be alone the entire trip. Anyways, I think it’s impossible to open up these bags from the inside without tearing them to pieces.” All of a sudden, the group inside heard a small click and their bag split open. After regaining her bearings, Twilight looked up and saw Pinkie Pie standing over them next to the bag’s lock. “Pinkie! How did you get out of your bag?! We need those to get out of the train, remember?” Twilight asked, stunned. “Oh it was easy-peasy! There was already a little hole in the top if you sat just right, and Fluttershy climbed out and unlocked the bag!” Pinkie explained. Twilight looked up and saw tiny Fluttershy buzzing above their heads. “Wow, good thinking Fluttershy! Rainbow Dash: go see if you can lock the door into this room so nopony walks in on us.” With that, Rainbow nodded and dashed to the door with her mission. “How are you doing Fluttershy? You haven’t said much at all this trip, are you ok?” Twilight asked. Fluttershy nodded. “Yes, just a little-- startled” she replied quietly. “The door was locked when I got there, I don’t think this is a popular place on the train” Rainbow Dash reported as she glided down to where everybody else was standing. “Wait, where’s Applejack?” Twilight asked. “I’m over here everypony!” they heard Applejack yell under a large pile of luggage. “Oh great, how are we supposed to get her out of that?” Rainbow whined. “Fluttershy: get down there and see if you can unlock her suitcase. Everyone else let’s try and dig her out” Twilight directed. The dragons scampered to where they heard the yell while Fluttershy hesitantly crawled into the caverns of mixed luggage. “Ug, why is everything so heavy!” Rainbow Dash complained as she tried to lift a medium floral bag. “Well remember we don’t have our size anymore, and I’m not sure how strong the average baby dragon is” Twilight reminded, “We’ll just have to do our best, and the worst that could happen is Applejack will just have to wait until we arrive in Ponyville to get out.” “I unlocked her bag,” Fluttershy said as she climbed out between the cracks of two large bags, “but I’m not sure-” Suddenly, the bags exploded out of the way and the group was covered in luggage. All that was left in the baggage crater was Applejack and her split-open suitcase. “Heh, sorry everypony” Applejack apologized as she uncovered her friends, “Ah guess I don’t know my own strength there.” “Well I suppose not all baby dragons are created equal when it comes to strength” Twilight muttered, rubbing her head as Applejack removed a large trunk that was on top of her, “Is everypony, uh, everyone ok?” “Yeah, we’re good” Rainbow Dash mumbled as she dusted herself off. “Wait a second, where’s Fluttershy?” Rarity asked in horror. The group gasped and began flipping over bags to search for their tiny friend. “Mmmphmhm mmmph!” Pinkie garbled, obviously with something crammed in her mouth. “Pinkie what is it?” Twilight asked, annoyed “Mhmm mph, blaaa-” Pinkie Pie started again, then spit whatever was in her mouth out. Lo and behold, out came a very slimy and dazed Fluttershy. “My word dear are you alright?” Rarity asked. “Oh, yes” Fluttershy answered, “Just a little- sticky...” “I’m so sorry Fluttershy! When that bag hit me you just flew right in!” Pinkie Pie apologised. “Oh no, it’s actually quite roomy in there.” “Alright girls” Twilight began, trying to regain the focus in the room, “So here’s the plan: Rarity, keep your eyes out the window and tell us the second that we’re out of the mountains so we have lots of time to get back into our bags; then we’ll do our little escape attempt backwards. We’ll pack Applejack back up as best as we can, Pinkie and Fluttershy will help Rarity, Rainbow and I get into our suitcase, then they’ll slip back into their bag, understood?” “Right!” Rainbow Dash affirmed as she saluted. “What can we do when we get back to Ponyville?” Applejack asked as she dusted off her hat. “Well, we can head straight for the library and we can look through all my books for anything about dragons, and especially anything about dragon spells.” “But Twilight, I’d never seen any spells like that before! Do you think you would have any books about them?” Rarity worriedly asked as she made her way to the window, “And even if you did, how could you perform them as a dragon?” Twilight looked down thoughtfully; there was a long pause as she racked her brain for answers. “I don’t know” Twilight admitted somberly; a faint pop could be heard in the background, “I really don’t know what we can do.” *pop* “But I do know one thing for certain: no matter what happens, we can’t give up” *pop* “We’ve been through eternal night, dragons, hydras-pretty much every mythical creature in equestria- and we didn’t give up!” *pop* “Horsefeathers, we’ve even had our personalities taken away from us and were still able to defeat Discord! Did it look hopeless then?” *pop* “Of course it did! But did we give up?” *pop-pop* “No! We couldn’t give up because all of Equestria needed us,” *pop* “and now Equestria and Princess Celestia needs us now more than ever!” *pop* *pop-pop* “I know that together, no matter what happens-” *pop-pop-pop* *POP* “Pinkie whatever you are doing could you please cut that out!” Everyone looked over at Pinkie Pie who was now sitting in the corner, in the midst of blowing bubbles. “Wait, what? Pinkie how are you doing that?” Applejack asked. “I dunno” Pinkie Pie giggled, “I can just sorta blow bubbles, watch!” Pinkie Pie took in a deep breath, then began blowing large bluish bubbles from her beak. “Woah!” Rainbow Dash yelled “I know! But watch this!” Pinkie took in an even bigger breath and began blowing another bubble. This time it looked as though there was a fire inside of the bubble, and after it straight up and hit the ceiling of the train car, it burst with a loud BANG. “Pinkie Pie, I’m happy that you can blow bubbles and all, but would you mind not doing so while I’m trying to make a speech?” “Ooo! No wait wait wait, I think I’m getting the hang of this!” Pinkie shushed. She took in another deep breath, focused hard then began blowing another bubble. The fire in this one was a lot brighter, and when it hit the roof of the train car it exploded with an even louder burst, and sent a shower of sparkles down on the floor. Pinkie Pie giggled excitedly at her new skill. “The bags!” Twilight yelled out, as she pointed to a bag on the floor that had caught fire from the bubble’s explosion. Applejack quickly ran over and beat the fire out with her tail before it spread to the rest of the car. “Pinkie, you really have to be more careful,” Twilight warned, “Not only could you have set the train on fire but I’m sure one of the conductors must have heard that. We better get back into our bags and-” “Um, everypony-” Rarity began “Calm down Twilight!” Rainbow Dash laughed, “That was totally awesome and the door’s locked anyways.” “Girls I really think you should see this-” Rarity started again, looking nervously out the window. “Rainbow Dash that’s not the point!” Twilight lectured “Twilight there’s something-” Rarity warned again fruitlessly. “Wait a minute, do you think that that was how Pinkie Pie breaths fire?” Applejack asked, “That would make sense since Night Ember called her a Bubble Dragon” “But everypony-” Rarity tried again “Awesome! Do you think I can breath fire too?” Rainbow Dash interrupted, then began to wheeze in an attempt to make a flame “If you could all just please-” Rarity tried to slip in anxiously “That’s not how you breath fire silly!” Pinkie Pie giggled. “Um, I think Rarity’s trying to-” Fluttershy began, hoping to help her friend get a word in. “No! No more fires on the train!” Twilight insisted, “We’re not burning this whole thing down just to do a little experimenting!” “WOULD EVERYPONY PLEASE JUST SHUT THEIR TRAP FOR JUST ONE SECOND!” Rarity screamed and everyone looked towards her in shock, “There’s something outside the train that you girls desperately need to-” Before Rarity could finish, something large hit against the side of the train and the friends were thrown around the train car. “What in tarnation was that?” Applejack asked, flustered “That’s what I was attempting to tell everypony” Rarity groaned, “There was a group of dragons flying towards the tracks, I think they're trying to stop the train!” Sure enough, three small dragons were slamming against the train tracks and others were doing their best to derail the train. The six friends could feel the train charging faster and faster as the dragons batted at it. “Why are we goin’ so fast when the train’s so unstable?” Applejack asked “They’re probably trying to outrun the dragons” Twilight explained, “They’ve probably put the engines on full, closed all the windows and- oh no!” “What is it Twilight?” Pinkie Pie asked “Sometimes in emergencies in order to make the train go faster they disconnect the luggage cars!” Twilight blurted. Everyone looked towards the door leading to the rest of the train and they saw one of the engineers loosening the connectors between their cars. “Noo!” Rainbow Dash screamed as she flew towards the door. She struggled with the lock, and the conductor looked into the car with horror and began pushing down on the disconnect lever more anxiously, slamming his body onto the red switch. Twilight ran to help her friend, but it was too late: they heard a sharp click and could see the train car in front of them speeding ahead. Gradually they felt their own car wobbling and slowing to a halt. The ponies' once hopeful attitude deflated with the slowing of the train car. “What now? It’ll take us forever to get to Ponyville after that! Lot of good it would have done us anyways. Stupid Night Ember with her stupid dragon spells...” Rainbow Dash trailed off. “Wait, that’s it!” Twilight exclaimed. “Wh- what do you mean?” Fluttershy asked. “It wouldn’t have done us any good to go to Ponyville, I don’t have any spells about dragons or even books about dragons, but you know who does?” “Night Ember!” Pinkie Pie answered excitedly “Exactly! If we can make it to Night Ember’s library, I’m sure she’ll have every sort of spell we’ll ever need to defeat her!” “Yeah! Great thinking Twilight!” Rainbow Dash encouraged, “Now lets get out of this stupid train car!” Rainbow Dash clung to the door and continued frustratedly fiddling with the handle. “Drat! It’s stuck! Stupid dragon hands with their stupid no strength-” Rainbow Dash mumbled. Applejack crawled up beside her and watched Rainbow Dash struggle for a few more attempts. “Mind if I give it a go?” Applejack asked, motioning towards the door. Rainbow Dash simply let go of the door and backed up, fed up with the situation. Applejack gave a harsh kick to the lock and the door went shooting off the car; Rainbow Dash just huffed. “Wait a minute what about Spike?” Rarity asked, concerned, “He’s still on the train to Ponyville. Little Spikey-Wikey will be all alone, he won’t know what the plan is and he won’t know if we’re safe or not.” “Hmm, good point Rarity,” Twilight said, stepping off the train car, “I’d hate for him to be all alone; nopony will recognise him now that he’s a pony. What we need is a messenger to tell him that we’re ok and he should just wait it out in the library.” “How about Rainbow Dash” Applejack offered, “It looks like the trains gonna make it all the way to Ponyville, she could fly there and deliver the message lickity-split” “Wait a second!” Rainbow Dash argued, “Why do I have to go to Ponyville when you guys get to go to Night Ember’s secret hideout? Fluttershy has wings too you know and I bet any of you could walk there just fine!” “Rainbow Dash, you’re the fastest one here and we need to move with the utmost speed. You’re the best one out of all of us to get the job done!” Twilight pleaded “Well, I guess if I’m the best and fastest one here” Rainbow Dash smiled, “But I don’t want to be stuck in boring-old Ponyville while Equestria’s in danger, how do I find you guys once I tell Spike what’s going on?” The ponies pondered for a moment, wondering how they could signal Rainbow Dash. They couldn’t simply meet at Night Ember’s cottage because they were unsure how long it would take them on foot, but they were too small to be seen from the sky. Suddenly, Twilight had an idea. “Wait a minute! Pinkie: how big, high and bright do you think you could make one of your bubbles go?” Twilight asked. Pinkie positioned herself for the challenge, took in a big gulp of air, then blew one of her biggest bubbles. It floated up into the sky to about 25 feet, then exploded in a blue and yellow firework. “Do you think you could see that Rainbow Dash?” Twilight asked. “No problem! Just don’t forget to keep blowing those every so often, I do not want to lose you guys. Oh and Twilight, what was that message again?” Rainbow Dash asked. As Twilight and Rainbow Dash discussed what they wanted to tell Spike, the remaining friends oriented themselves and psyched themselves up for a trip into the Smoky Mountains.
Chapter Three: Scaling the Great UnknownSpike looked frantically around the train car, the place was in pure chaos. They still could hear the dragon just a few hundred meters behind them and nopony knew what to do. All he could hear was the roar of the train engine and the screams of the other frightened ponies. “Why’s this happening?!” “We’re all going to die!” “Can’t this train go any faster?” The passengers inside felt another sharp hit to the side of the traincar. “It’s those blasted dragons!” “I don’t understand, dragons have never attacked us before!” “Wait, is the train moving faster now?” And indeed it was, Spike could feel the engine pulling the cars forward at an amazing pace. He managed to scoot close enough to a window to see the dragon falling behind. There was a large cheer from all the passengers in the train, and Spike let out a huge sigh of relief. Slowly, everypony on the train began calming down, and Spike once again settled in his seat. Then, he heard the hoofsteps of an engineer coming down the hallway. “That was amazing” Spike congratulated the engineer, “How’d you get the train to go so fast?” “Well, in emergencies we have all hooves on deck, it’s amazing what a team can do under pressure. Also, since this was a real emergency we took all the emergency measures and let some weight off the train to get her wheels really goin’.’” “Wow, that’s really great- wait a second, did you say let some weight off the train?” Spike asked worriedly. “Ur, yeah. Unfortunately we had to lose the baggage cars, but we figured you ponies lives were a lot better than those bags” The engineer admitted. “No! No no no no!” Spike sputtered, “You can’t get rid of those! I had some very important bags on there!” “Sorry little guy, but it was either lose the baggage cars or lose the whole train. It looked like there was even a small swarm of those little dragons in there so we wouldn’t have had much of a chance. I’m sure your mom or dad will forgive you, I mean, ponies are more important than luggage, right? And we’ll be out of the mountains and back in Ponyville in no time, you’ll see!” “Yeah” Spike muttered as the conductor went to the front of the train. Spike smooshed his face against the window, straining his eyes to look for the discarded train car, but it was already out of sight. It was a long trip to Ponyville, even going at full speed, but Spike somehow wished it was longer. He was scared of going into this weird new world alone, and at least on the train car he was kind of safe from having to walk in his clunky new feet or open doors without his hands. However, he did arrive in Ponyville; it was a little calmer there than in Canterlot, but there was still an uneasiness in the air. All anypony could see was the dragons swarming around Canterlot Castle like bees over a flaming hive, and black smoke spewing out from the city. Spike carefully exited the train while the rest of the ponies ran out in a worried flurry, their eyes fixated on the overtaken capital, but his mind stayed on his missing friends. He was scared, confused and alone; Spike had no clue what to do without Twilight or anypony else. Unfortunately, he wasn't paying attention to his hooves and fell face first down the steps off the train platform. He rubbed his head, when somepony extended their hoof to help them up. "You alright little pony?" The old green pony asked Spike, "that was sure a nasty fall you took there." Spike looked up and recognized the old pony as Granny Smith. Spike felt shocked and embarrassed; he didn't want Granny Smith to recognize him, he might be seen as a spy, or at the very least be locked away for being an ex-dragon. He lowered his head and quickly got up. "Oh, um, thank you m'am" Spike mumbled as he began walking off. "Wait a minute little guy!" Granny called out after Spike, "do I know you from somewhere? I've met a lot of ponies in my day but you do seem real familiar..." "Uh, I don't think so," Spike lied, "I've just got, um, one of those faces I guess." He had stopped walking to be polite, but was now slowly backing up to escape. "No no, t'aint your face," Granny stated again, "oh! You know what it is? It's your voice!" "Ah, that's what it is!" Spike chuckled nervously, "Well, mystery solved! I should probably get going-" "Wait a darn-tootin' minute, that's not just it," Granny interrupted again, "Yer coat looks a might familiar too. You sure we haven't met before? Ever heard of Apple Strudel?" "Granny! Granny!" Spike heard somepony yell, "Applejack never got off the train, and neither did any of her friends, me and Big Mac are getting' worried!" Applejack's little sister Applebloom was running towards him and Granny Smith. Spike was starting to panic; the more ponies who knew him before, the more likely he was going to get found out. "Well, it was nice meeting you folks but I really have to go" Spike said, scrambling to get away, "Thank you for your hoof Granny Smith." Spike was almost out of range when Granny Smith called out to him. "That was a pretty impressive trick," Granny Smith began, suspicious, "Knowin' my name even though we haven't met before." Spike stopped dead in his tracks, the jig was up. "Uh, well, Applebloom just said it!" Spike yelled, trying to cover his tracks. "Naw, she only said Granny." "Wait a minute, how did you know my name?" Applebloom asked, confused. The three Apples stared at Spike, waiting for an answer. Spike looked from pony to pony, trying to think of another lie that could get him out of this one. "Look little fritter," Granny started, earnestly concerned for him, "are you in trouble or somethin'? I hope you know that we'll do anything we can to help you out, no matter who ya are. Now son, do you think you could tell us your name?" Spike sighed, he was so afraid to trust the Apples, but he didn't know what else to do. "Woah! Where'd you get that cutie mark?" Applebloom suddenly cried out, staring at Spike's rump, "I've never seen that cutie mark before! What's your talent?" Spike looked back at where Applebloom was looking, he hadn't noticed that he had a cutie mark. It was a simple bright, green swirling flame, just like the kind he used to make as a dragon right before Celestia sent a letter. "Well, uh-" Spike began "It looks awful familiar, kinda like the kind that Spike would- Spike!” Applebloom suddenly called out in realization. “What! No!” Spike began, backing up away from the Apples “Yes! That’s who ya’ sound like! The little dragon that Twilight has!” Granny hollered. “Is that really you Spike? How’d y’all get like this?” Applebloom asked. “No! Um, I just-” Spike scrambled, trying to think of any explanation. As he continued shuffling away, he backed right into Big Macintosh; Spike was trapped. The three ponies earnestly looked at Spike for an answer. “Spike,” Big Macintosh began, “Are you in some kinda trouble?” Spike lowered his head and sat down, defeated. He was defeated by his lies and defeated by all the terrible things that had happened that day. “Yes” Spike softly wailed, starting to cry, “I just don’t know what to do. Me and Twilight and her friends went up to Canterlot to meet some sort of fan of hers called Night Ember, but when we got there, she wasn’t a fan at all. These dragons suddenly attacked the castle and burst through the windows, and they trapped everyone. Then Night Ember told everyone that ponies had been oppressing dragons, and she even asked me if I’d been oppressed and I didn’t even defend my friends.” While Spike was talking, the Apples simply sat close and listened to every word. “I didn’t really understand what’s happening, I think she turned Princess Celestia into a dragon egg, and she turned the rest of my friends into baby dragons and told them that they can’t use the Elements of Harmony. When she told me to tell Twilight what I really felt and to-- to hurt her I just couldn’t!”, Spike began crying harder, “I just couldn’t hurt my friends like that and I didn’t know what was going on, so I told Night Ember no and, and she got upset, then her magic hit me and I woke up and I was a pony! “I can’t use my hands anymore, I can’t breath fire, I can’t stand on two legs, I can’t even use my tail anymore! It, it stinks. Then, then Night Ember told us to leave, so we all snuck on the train to Ponyville; they were in the luggage car and I stayed in the passenger car. But, but then dragons started to attack the train, and, and the engineers disconnected the luggage car, and I, I don’t know-” Spike began sobbing, “I just feel like this is all my fault.” “What?!” Applebloom yelled. “Spike, none of this is ‘yer fault deerie-” Granny Smith started. “But it is, kind of, some of it. I just feel guilty because I couldn’t defend my friends.” Spike whimpered. Big Mac smiled, then comfortingly put his front leg around Spike. “Now Spike, the fact that you’re a pony just shows you did defend your friends” Big Mac comforted. Spike clumsily wiped away some of his tears then looked up at Big Mac thankfully. “Now I’ve heard a lot of sad stories in my day” Granny began, “But that’s got to be one of the worst, and I’ll be darn-tootin’ if we can’t help ‘ya fix it!” “Really?” Spike blathered, looking up at Granny Smith, “you would do that for me?” “Why a’course!” Applebloom insisted, “you’re our friend! And who else can you rely on if you can’t rely on good friends!” Spike thanked the Apples profusely as he tried to give them all big pony hugs, but it was a lot different giving hugs on four legs as opposed to two and he fell over when he tried to give one to Applebloom. They all laughed together as Granny Smith wiped some of Spikes tears away. “But I don’t know what to do now! Should I go back to the library where we said we’d meet? Should I go out looking for them? Should-” “Woah slow down little fella! Just calm your barrel, we’ll figure something out” Granny encouraged. “But what if they’re not ok? It’s not like they’re just going to fall out of the sky and tell me they’re alright!” “Wait a minute,” Applebloom hushed, “do y’all hear that?” The four ponies went silent, and they heard a low rumble in the sky, like something was speeding towards them. As they looked up, they saw a streak of blue and rainbow heading straight for them. “Hit the hay!” Granny Smith yelled as the group quickly ducked as the streak of light flew over their heads and crashed into a nearby bush. The group got up and ran towards the crash to investigate. “Well would ya look at that!” Applebloom exclaimed. Lying in the bush was dragon Rainbow Dash, rubbing her sore head from impact. “Rainbow!” Spike cried, “I’m so glad you’re here! Is everyone else ok?” “Ug, yeah, everypony’s fine. Jeez, these wings are great but it’s impossible to land...” “Where is everyone? Should I go back into the mountains with them? Are they coming here?” Spike continued to pester. “No no no,” Rainbow Dash started again as she began brushing herself off, “They’re going deeper into the mountains to look for Night Ember’s headquarters or something. They told me, to tell you, to stay here and look through the library just in case there’s something in Twilight’s books.” “Oh, ok,” Spike said, a little disappointed that he wasn’t going to see anyone else, “But you’re staying here with me, right Rainbow Dash?” “Ha!” Rainbow laughed, “No way! I’m heading back into the mountains for some adventure! You’ll be fine by yourself.” “But, I’ll be all alone” Spike sputtered. “No you won’t!” Applebloom offered, “We’ll help ya out! Won’t we Granny Smith?” “Darn tootin’! A’course we’ll help you, what else is family for? Er, friends of friends of family.” Granny Smith encouraged. Spike smiled up at the old pony. However, more ponies were coming up behind them to investigate the crash. “Rainbow, you gotta get outta here!” Applebloom warned. “You got it, with these wings I’ll be out of here in a dash before anypony even sees me!” Rainbow Dash boasted, then set herself up for flight. With her eyes squinted, her back arched, and her wings aloft, she let out a triumphant “Yah!” before trying to speed off into the blackening sky. Unfortunately, she only got about a foot high before taking a sharp arch downwards and crashing. “Gosh darnit!” Rainbow mumbled before hobbling off for a clunky running takeoff with everypony watching in an awkward confusion. “What the hay was that?” asked one of the ponies watching the ordeal. “Do you think that was a dragon?” “Are they attacking Ponyville now?!” “Nah,” calmed Granny Smith, “Looked to me like a big rainbow gull. Must’a gotten lost from its migration group. They aren’t too bright you know.” This explanation seemed to calm the crowd, who were quickly losing interest in the ‘rainbow gull’ and worries looked back to their endangered capital. “So Spike” Granny whispered back to the purple colt, “You think you can get us back to ‘yer libary now?” Spike nodded and the group trotted into town towards Twilight’s old home. "Er, Twilight?" "Yes Applejack?" "Not to doubt y'all or anything Twi, but do you sure you know where you're takin' us?" The group had been scampering up the side of Horseshoe Pass for a solid hour, and things were beginning to look a less and less like a legitimate trail, and more like they were simply lost. Behind them, they heard Pinkie blow up another signal bubble. "Don't worry, I'm 93% sure that this is the right path if we want to head into the smoky mountains" Twilight stated assuredly, "Well, at least 81% sure. Maybe closer to 79% sure." The friends then came out of the brush and found themselves at the edge of a desolate cliff- definitely a dead end. "Ok, at this point it may be closer to only 34% sure..." Twilight mumble. The group groaned. "Ug! This is all so frustrating! I've never tried to navigate without some sort of map before, this is hopeless" Twilight sighed. "Wait, does anypony else hear that?" Rarity shushed, the group went silent and they could all hear a low rumble in the sky that was coming straight towards them. "Look!" Pinkie Pie pointed to a streak of color in the sky, "I think that's Rainbow Dash!" The blur was speeding towards them, and it tried to land a few feet in front of them. However, instead of a clean landing Rainbow Dash only managed to bounce and skid until she landed at Pinkie Pie's feet, who let out an excited squee. "Rainbow!" Pinkie Pie gushed excitedly, giving her battered friend a big hug. "Did you get the message to Spike?" Twilight asked. "Ug, yeah. Spike managed to find Applejack's family and they're all at your house now, he seemed ok. Um, Pinkie Pie, do you think you could let go now?" Rainbow Dash sputtered out or her squeezed lungs. "Oops! Sure!" Pinkie Pie dropped her friend on the rock floor as Rainbow rubbed her head. "Thanks Pinkie..." Rainbow Dash mumbled. "No problem!" "Ok!" Twilight spat, trying to get her friends back on track, "So, we have Rainbow Dash and Spike's safe and sound at home, now we just have to keep moving! At this pace, we might even rescue the Princess before sundown! Or, what would be sundown anyways-" "What time is it? Does anypony have a clue?" Rainbow Dash asked. The ponies all looked into the sky, they could only see a small glimpse of the sun, still in its noon position, as the thick, inky smoke slithered across the Equestrian sky. “Goll-ey” Applejack murmured, lowering her hat, “I couldn’t even imagine what whatever’s left of Canterlot looks like now, they must have burned down the entire city to have created that much smoke.” However, Twilight was dubious. “I’m not so sure, that seems like too much smoke for just a city-wide fire, even a city as huge as Canterlot.” Twilight looked around, then scampered up a nearby tree to try and get a better view of her old home. She squinted between the mountain pass, and strained her eyes. “Then where’s all the smoke coming from?” Pinkie Pie asked. “Well, remember when that dragon started to hibernate in the mountain right outside of Ponyville? There was so much smoke that you could barely see the sky. It was redonkulous!” Pinkie reminisce. “Yeah, until we drove it out!” Rainbow Dash added excitedly. The group stayed silent for a moment, remembering the moment in light of the events of that morning. “So you think it was a good idea to kick ‘em out?” Applejack asked. “Um, yeah!” Rainbow Dash blurted, still not making the connection. The remaining friends stared thoughtfully as it dawned on her. “Well, Princess Celestia told us to, it was our duty!” Rainbow backpedaled as her friends stared at her, “Also, uh, oh! Also, it was blacking out the sky, remember? It was making the weather team’s job impossible and, you know, making the sky all smokey” “It was upsetting my animals” Fluttershy mumbled. “But that cave was it’s home, he was just trying to sleep” Twilight stated. “He wasn’t even violent ‘til Rainbow Dash kicked him” Applejack murmured. The group fell silent again. “What if Night Ember’s right? What if we were wrong about dragons and we’ve been hurting them all along?” Twilight asked, then looked at the group, “What if we’re wrong?” “Now Twilight” Rarity started “I can’t say that every interaction that ponies have made with dragons has been, sparkling, but taking over Canterlot, attacking ponies and brainwashing Princess Celestia certainly hasn’t been right. Sure, Night Ember may have had some valid points, but a more- diplomatic approach on her end would have been in order.” “I suppose-” Twilight mumbled, “-I just can’t help but think of all of the other dragons that have been feeling this way.” “Twi, I think you’re forgetting about somepony special that would disagree with you there” Applejack began. “Who?” Twilight asked “Spike a’course! Even though he’s been a dragon living in a pony world, he loves you, why he loves all of us so much that even when he had the choice to rule ‘long side with other dragons he told Night Ember and her band of misfits to munch mulch.” Applejack reminded. “Woah, not only that AJ” Rainbow Dash added, “Night Ember was about to blast his scales off and he still stuck by our side.” “Well, technically she did blast is scales off,” Pinkie Pie pondered, “But even after that he was still on our side!” “I’m sure that Spike’s not the only one, but I think we’re all very lucky to have him as a friend” Fluttershy said as she landed beside Twilight. The group nodded in agreement. “Well, are we going to sit here talking about nothing all day or are we going to kick some dragon butt?” Rainbow Dash asked impatiently. Everyone laughed, and the six friends continued scurrying up the side of the mountain.
Prologue: Cinders of a Frozen VillagePrologue: Cinders of a Frozen Village The village jolted into silence. Ash floated down onto the blackened, icy, path; embers sputtered and quietly squealed against the melting snow. A mare walked past the last of the burning buildings, a few roofs slowly collapsing, stirring cinders into the freezing air. Breathing in deeply, she filled her lungs with smoke and let the weight of the night settle upon her. Terrified eyes stared back at her, no longer shivering from chill but from fear and disbelief. The mare walked closer to the group, leaving slushed footprints in the snow. Of course there was doubt, but the reward was undeniable. Another icy wind blew through the mountain, both strangling and feeding the flames behind her, whipping her mane in front of unblinking eyes; she now knew she was ready. It was time to return to Equestria.
